Survive
by The Viscount Vampyre
Summary: Three Yautja brothers' screw up might just be a blessing in disguise as they attempt to contain some escaped Xenomorphs, and in the midst of a wedding she doesn't want to be part of, a young woman's life is about to change drastically. Request and prompt from FeralG3. Read and review SVP.
1. Chapter 1

Survive – Part one

"You idiot!"

A male Yautja smacked the masked head of his companion and rumbled with a rage that could only be matched by his terror.

"You absolute…"

The Yautja stopped for a moment struggling to find a word strong enough to articulate his anger, though he was so flustered that he ended up saying basically the same thing he had already yelled.

"…imbecile! Do you realise what you've done?"

He pressed the action home by taking hold of and shaking his blood-brother.

"We're going to be exiled for this… If not outright killed." Tensely he let go and began pacing the metal flooring.

Currently he was grilling one of his brothers and was debating very heavily on killing him to wipe away the shame of his colossal fuck-up.

Finally finding his voice the masked Yautja spoke up to his older brother; "Look… Yu'icha I know that this is bad… But sometimes…"

He paused searching for some form of wisdom to assuage his brothers wroth.

"Even Elder Tawana says 'a hunter can lose many things even before a hunt and shame is not necessarily to follow.'"

The quote from one of Tawana's sermons was not as powerful as Tragg thought it would be, and rather than have a peaceful effect it exacerbated Yu'icha's already strained emotions further.

"How could you _lose_ five serpent chrysalises?" He roared.

The obnoxious lack of expression from Tragg's mask made Yu'icha raise his fist and prepare to bring it down into the blank metal 'face' of his brother.

The whoosh and whirr of the sealed bulkhead door to the room opening caused the two males to look at the figure now passing through.

Entering into the cabin an exceptionally large Yautja was bearing a plate full of freshly cooked food.

He looked up and furrowed his brow, clicking his tusks quizzically before finally breaking the awkward silence.

"Am I interrupting?"

His voice boomed even though he didn't mean for it to, but it was because Gharack was large, even by Yautja standards.

He stood just a short distance below the doorway and often had to duck when entering some rooms and buildings.

His muscles and sheer strength made him well sought amongst the females even for a few hours of company.

He could fell trees with his bare hands, and in his youth he would practise lifting them for sport.

He lifted anything actually, tree trunks, large kills, boulders. He even lifted a small Yautja space craft once while he and his brothers were drunk on sour-wine.

Gharack tore some muscles and gave himself a hernia, but he did it.

Though his strength was great Gharack learned from his teachers that he was never to rely on one tool or one weapon too much.

And ever since he was a pup he was whipped into being a multi-disciplinary Yautja.

Gharack read, and he wrote, he asked questions, and he did a variety of things that were not typical to a young male Yautja's interests.

For all intents and purposes Gharack was an odd-duck.

The largest of the three Yautja brothers was also uncharacteristically calm for a Yautja. A quality which always left him ostracized by his kind, even without his mask he was impossible to read, which made him dangerous.

By comparison his brothers were hotheads, but their natural fear of Gharack coupled with their respect of his age, rank, and personal prowess ensured their loyalty and faithful obedience to his word.

He'd just finished preparing his dinner when he'd walked into the large cabin and into the argument, or fight, he was unsure, between his two younger brothers.

"Well… uh." Yu'icha started.

Then he smacked Tragg and pointed to Gharack, "Why don't you tell him?"

"Tell me what…" Gharack repeated.

Tragg started up… "Look… I went down to…" He stuttered, "I-I, well I went down and I c-checked the stasis pods."

Gharack shoulders tensed and his hands gripped his metal plate tighter.

"It looks like… well I mean…"

Yu'icha pushed his brother and took over the explanation, "The serpent chrysalises are gone… You know the ones we were supposed to deliver?"

The oldest of them nearly dropped his food as he took a step backwards.

"What do you mean; 'gone'?" He finally managed to get out.

Yu'icha wrapped his hand onto his younger brother's neck, "Well! This one went down to check them before we made ready to leave the station, and they were not where we left them..."

Tragg fought under his brother's grip and threw off his heavy hand.

"…He looked and looked and just came up to tell me now."

Gharack put his food down on the nearest flat surface and he took a deep breath, "Who could have possibly known we had them on the station other than us?"

Tragg winced, and then the two unmasked brothers looked at him.

He painfully began to speak.

"I may, _may_ have let slip to a female on the station that we were transporting something very dangerous…"

Yu'icha's eyes widened and he drew his wrist blades, "We're going to be exiled because you tried to impress a pair of teats!"

He lunged at his younger brother in a rage and Gharack leapt in to stop him.

"I'm going to kill you Tragg! I'm going to kill you!"

Grumbling and roaring to out-display Yu'icha, Gharack began speaking, "No one is killing anyone!"

Yu'icha stared into his brothers bright yellow eyes, wordlessly challenging him but eventually he took a breath and finally relented, retracting his weapons.

Stepping back from Tragg, Yu'icha ran his hands along his face and crest, anxiously breathing and rubbing his face. He ended the action by flicking his dreadlocks back off his shoulders. And gruffly spoke;

"What do we do Gharack?"

The oldest brother stood and carefully stroked his bottom left mandible.

"It's all going to be okay."

He clapped his hands together before continuing;

"It's simple… we will track this female down and find out what she's done with our property, right?"

The two brothers agreed with their older leader and nodded, "Right…"

Nodding Gharack lowly continued,

"With any luck she'll still be on the station…"

Turning back to the heavy bulkhead door Gharack led his two brothers through the open passage and down the connecting hallway.

They'd make their way to the main section of the space station and start their search there and Gharack vocalised as they began entering into the connecting terminal.

"We'll go landing bay by landing bay and ask every one of the harbour masters if they've seen her or anyone else loading large stasis-pods."

Tragg spoke up meekly, "A-and if she's left the station with our cargo?"

Turning to his younger brother Gharack pointed his large index finger, "Then you will make our ship ready for launch and we are going to chase her down."

Grumbling Tragg reluctantly kept close to the stomping of his older brothers.

This drama of stolen goods occurred inside a Yautja way-station of sorts.

It was a place for clan ships, and hunting parties to come, mingle, stretch their legs, trade, and store items; at a cost.

In addition to these and a few other services, it was agreed upon neutral territory.

Sanctified by many aged and holy traditions Yautja had been coming to it for centuries, using it on many occasions to broker peace and agreements that would otherwise have wiped out whole clans.

The station itself was plain, but massive, designed with attention to replicate the feeling of a city turned inside, though to call it a 'city' is to embellish its size.

All in all the station could support maybe five hundred living, breathing, Yautja at one time. Though the era of that many Yautja in one place, other than the home world, was long since gone.

At present there were just a few hundred Yautja on board, and of that around half were staff who lived, and worked aboard the satellite.

It was built into a large asteroid floating somewhere along the Orion Arm of the Milky Way. It circled a small star and had been outfitted with technology and thrusters to create its own spin, ensuring that the small star wouldn't over heat or wipe away the Yautja clinging to the rock.

The three brothers, Gharack, Yu'icha, and Tragg had been tasked by an old, very old, Yautja Chief with bringing him a clutch of serpent eggs, the elderly master had sought to blood his youths before he died, and had hoped to do so with the use of some serpents.

The compensation that the brothers were set to receive after delivering the contraband was going to help propel them into a position and status from which they'd be permitted to do or get away with almost anything.

Serpent eggs were tightly monitored and in all seriousness, now quite rare within Yautja space, there were a few game-preserve planets that had been set up by Yautja which were now entirely dominated by the nasty xeno-morphs.

And so it strayed very close to 'bad blood' territory to handle or even come into possession of serpent eggs unless you were specifically tasked as a guardian by an elder council.

Chrysalises however were different, and if caught by hunters and frozen were very rich prizes indeed.

In a way Gharack and his brothers provided a necessary service to many clans that would otherwise have a hard time of doing things; especially in organising serpent-based hunts.

For many the three Yautja brothers were couriers; taking odd jobs, bounties, and requests from various Yautja clans.

Now… with all this being said, one might think 'if the chrysalises were so important maybe one of the Yautja brothers should have been guarding them.'

Which is entirely valid, but in Gharack's experience, labeling their cargo with innocuous manifests such as: 'Grain bushels' or 'Metal slag' ensured not only the way station asked no questions, but that possible thieves would keep well enough away.

This was just one time where the three boys got unlucky, and Tragg said something to someone that he shouldn't have.

However, millions of miles away, on a distant planet, which was occasionally used as a Yautja hunting spot, a drama of a whole other sort was unfolding.

-1-

Naomi Huang was getting married.

And while a marriage is supposed to be a happy occasion, her impeding nuptials were not.

It wasn't her first choice of man; in fact she didn't really get any choice at all, it was a pressured and rushed kind of situation to be clear.

While at university she had been going out with this hotshot, and hotheaded, E-trader from Hong Kong, there were several times she wondered to herself why she was even going out with this guy to begin with. But for better or worse she stuck in the relationship.

Then her parents found out about it.

And that did not help the issue at all.

Her family had emigrated from China to the United States for the promise of freedom from an overarching tyranny and the idea of a better life for themselves and their children.

But they ended up replicating the same kind of tyranny they fled in Naomi's life.

They controlled her in almost every way, even down to what she could and could not wear.

University however was an escape and a place she was finally able to break free, if only for a little while; which begged the question if it was worse for her to have tasted a little freedom before being imprisoned again, or never at all.

But regardless of all that, at university she did make friends and connections, mostly to people who were like her; children stuck in between two cultures.

Though ultimately it was through a friend of hers from university that she came to meet her now fiancé. Of course she didn't blame that friend now for what ended up happening, it wasn't their fault.

How could they have known what was going to transpire in Naomi's life?

Naomi was meek, and had the decided inability to assert herself.

Towards her friends sometimes

To her family all the time

And to this man she was now set to marry, always; and worse than that it was going to be expected as part of the marriage pact, in practise if not in traditional vows.

Her mother and father fawned over him when they first met him.

Naomi had hoped that it would never have happened but it was a horrible coincidence that revealed the fact their daughter was dating someone to her parents;

One of the few times that Yue, her fiancé, took her out on a date some family friend of her parents must have seen them.

But the point was it somehow got back to her Mother and Father, and next thing she knew they demanded to see him.

They met him and immediately gave the union their seal of approval.

In a way Naomi thought that everyone in her life was in on a sort of conspiracy to deliberately sabotage her chances at autonomy;

Her boss regularly took advantage of her, her family did what they did, and now Yue was riding high on how luckily he had scored with her as his soon to be bride.

All in all Naomi Huang was drowning, and her anxiety never let her forget it.

Wave after wave would hit her and it sunk her deeper into a lonely place, somewhere she was begging for anything or anyone to do something about.

Even though she wasn't actually articulating these thoughts aloud, deep down in her chest she could feel it.

In a horrifying way something was coming that was going to very greatly change her life.

But until then she had to try and keep her cool.

She had to hang on and stay waiting.

If she was to speak with her parents she had to use Chinese, since her parents had come from Hunan province, her dialect was Xiang. Which caused no end of irritation for Naomi as her friends would constantly ask her to speak with people behind counters in restaurants, or in shops.

And she would explain, for the umpteenth time, that Chinese was not one language; there were tons, and they even changed dialects depending on how old a person was.

When she was younger she took a small sense of pride at being a speaker of such a unique and rare dialect, especially growing up in the United States, but now it was more and more a bother.

Especially if she encountered someone through her work that'd see her last name, then they'd try speaking with her in Mandarin, and she'd respectfully have to direct them back to English. Though even that was sometimes hard for her to get out she felt so shy and put-upon.

Clearing her throat she caught the attention of her mother, who was, at present, speaking with the floral coordinator.

The three women stood in the middle of the empty ballroom of the small, but exclusive, hotel that her parents along with her fiancé Yue had rented.

Her mother stood hand on hip waiting for her daughter to speak,

This was the first time she had said anything the whole time they were meeting with the floral coordinator.

"But Mother… I, I really don't like those…"

She was so flustered she'd forgotten the name of the arrangement that her mother was pushing for.

With her well-practised and condescending tone her mother snapped back, "Nonsense! Your cousin Sheng's wedding had the same ones and every other bride was envious. We will have the same but bigger."

The floral girl stood by awkwardly, clutching her clipboard and looking down at her notes.

Naomi nodded, "R-right… It's just, I was hoping for some pink carnations… They're my favourite and-"

Her mother's hand cut her off, "Please! Don't be silly, that is not a proper flower and I will not have them at my youngest child's wedding."

And with that it was over, and Naomi knew well enough not to try and interject again.

Quietly she looked downwards and involuntarily bowed at her insolence.

Turning her attention back to the florist her mother spoke in almost completely unaccented English, "Sorry, what were we saying?"

Without exacerbating what she had just watched the florist continued with their previous discussion.

It always had drove Naomi crazy that her mother did this to her, not the shooting her down part, but the language part.

Her mother wouldn't answer her unless she spoke Xiang, and then if she was pronouncing poorly or if she was slanging her words her mother would berate her.

Finishing up her conversation with the florist the mother turned back towards her daughter and shook her head, "Really… I don't understand your aloofness. I didn't raise you to behave this way."

Naomi quietly nodded.

'Always agree' had been another self-defence mechanism she'd learned as well.

Though like many other things, it never ended up doing her any favours.

Her mother spoke to her as she slowly walked out of the room.

"Get yourself ready, and make sure you sleep tonight, I want you up early so we can run through this rehearsal."

-2-

Yu'icha was piloting the brother's small craft, hot on the tail of their thieves' ship.

"Just had to try and impress her!" He yelled as he turned the ship's controls. "Just had to try and get a female while on the station!"

Tragg grumbled, "It's not my fault!"

Gharack growled, the three brothers were tightly packed into the cockpit of their ship and he never liked being tightly pressed up against anything, let alone his own warring younger brothers.

"Enough… Pay attention to that damn ship… Tragg what's their read out telling us?"

Begrudgingly the youngest of the three returned his attention to his console.

"Well they're gaining energy at a high rate, even though we're not out of the asteroid belt yet…"

"They might be trying to jump away…" Yu'icha said through his gritted teeth.

Though he spoke he was still concentrating on staying close to the ship ahead of them; navigating the smaller pieces of flying space rocks required all his tact and ability.

Gharack nodded, "Then we will follow… the moment they jump we jump too. Understood?"

Yu'icha nodded and Tragg looked up at his older brother with fear in his eyes.

"You can't be serious…"

Gharack snarled, "I am Tragg… these bastards think they can steal from us and get away with it? I'd go to the end of the galaxy if we have to."

Tragg clicked his tusks and exhaled.

"Okay then… Our tracker is locked on them… they jump, we jump."

Gharack made a gruff affirmation.

They followed the thieves' ship for several more tense minutes before it finally shirked forwards and zoomed off as it went FTL.

Tragg quietly cringed, and Yu'icha's eyes widened as he rumbled "Here we go!"

Gharack tensed and held his breath.

A second later their ship followed suit and exploded into FTL speeds.

When they emerged from the jump proximity alerts immediately began to whirr and beep.

Yu'icha's quick reflexes saved them from smashing completely into the side of the thief-ship and instead they only slightly sheered into their quarry.

Tragg clutched his console and Gharack pushed against the sides of the cockpit to keep from falling.

"We're clear!" Yu'icha announced, relieved.

The thieves' ship rattled and chunks of its fuselage tore off in strips.

"Bring us around! I want to board and get our shit!"

Gharack looked intensely at the lurching enemy craft as Yu'icha turned their ship and brought it about.

Tragg pointed at a chunk flying off of the ship larger than the others.

"Wait, isn't that a pod?"

Gharack and Yu'icha both followed their brothers' finger and eventually, against the black backdrop of space, they saw the small 'pod' quickly accelerating away from the main ship.

When they saw the ignition of an engine behind it they knew it was deliberately shot off the ship.

Gharack looked at Yu'icha.

Tragg's console lit up with activity and as he received a message from the ship.

"We've fired off your cargo to the planet below us…"

The voice rumbled with rage but sounded decidedly out of breath.

"We can't fight off both you outside and your pets inside..."

Gharack's eyes widened, the chrysalises were hatching, or had hatched…

"We didn't know you were transporting live serpents! You are all fools!"

The voice continued, "Follow them down there if you must… But we hope that those blasted serpents kill each one of you!"

Yu'icha and Tragg both watched, cringing as the pod continued to shrink, closer and closer to the planet nearby.

"Tragg track that pod! We cannot lose those serpents!"

Tragg nodded and immediately brought his console up while Yu'icha began flying the craft after the falling pod.

Before cutting off communication the voice from the thieves' ship spoke again, "I hope you die down there."

Gharack growled lowly.

"Have you got it Tragg?"

The youngest Yautja nodded, "Locked on…"

"Yu'icha, cloak the ship and begin following it down…"

Lifting himself out of the cockpit Gharack went into the body of their ship to begin suiting himself for their retrieval mission.

"With any luck it'll burn up in the atmosphere, or the xenos will be killed on impact."

Yu'icha called back to Gharack, "We're entering the atmosphere… Hang on!"

The ship began to rumble violently as the interior began to heat up noticeably.

"It looks like it's going to land in water!" Tragg called out.

Gharack felt hope and slight relief, "How close to land? Also what planet is this? Where are we?"

Tragg began flicking through his screen, "This is a known planet…"

Then he called back, "This is the Human home world…"

Gharack felt his chest drop.

"Then you best pray that we aren't going to be spotted and that damn pod lands somewhere unpopulated."

Yu'icha began pulling up to balance their descent.

"Hang on!"

The rumbling began to get louder and louder, and Tragg pointed, "It hit the water!"

Yu'icha quickly responded, "That's not nearly deep enough! Gharack I'm landing the ship."

"Brothers get your shit… We are not leaving this planet until we get each one."


	2. Chapter 2

It was evening when the Yautja made landfall after their prize.

Gharack was thankful that it would be dark when and while they searched for the xenomorphs.

The benefit of the coming night ensured that their presence would be masked and that their efforts to contain and cover their tracks would have the least potential for exposure.

Gharack was praying under his breath, actually _praying_ , that they wouldn't fail.

There really wasn't any option for them to fail.

Exile would be the least of their worries if this reached council elders…

He shook his head, 'no, I've got to stop thinking about that…'

Taking a breath he shut his eyes tightly and tried to focus himself.

"We will fix this…"

He had dressed in heavy armour and grabbed as many of his weapons as he could before becoming encumbered.

Xenomorphs, the serpents… When dealing with them, hunting them, anything to do with them there was no way he was going to be taking any chances.

He made sure to have his net launcher, a combi-stick, diversionary devices, his plasma caster, and blades.

Lots of blades

He had replacement blades for his wrist gauntlets, a knife strapped on each calf, a blade on his thigh, throwing knives, and two smart discs.

His brothers were both similarly outfitted and ready in a short amount of time.

When they were still in the air the three brothers observed that the escape pod had crashed into water.

As their ship descended and the details became easier for them to make out the three Yautja realised that the water was actually some kind of an artificial reservoir.

This meant that it wasn't nearly deep enough.

Gharack's chest tightened, 'those xenos would be pretty rowdy from their impromptu flight' he thought 'and now with them in the water we'll have to wait them out'

He shook his head at the thought of even daring to enter water after a serpent.

'It'd be certain death to even get close while they were down there…'

Speaking up to his brothers he vocalised his thoughts, "We're going to have to wait until they surface to try to kill or capture them…"

As the craft came to a careful halt Tragg shuddered nervously.

Landing the small ship Yu'icha clicked his tusks loudly and voiced his optimism aloud; "Let's hope we get there before they leave…"

Going through the shutdown procedures for the craft Yu'icha ended his clicking on the console by deployed their ship's ramp.

Gharack breathed in deeply, "No going back brothers… Not until we have each one of them in our clutches."

Tragg nodded, while Yu'icha quietly and reluctantly clicked his tusks.

"Let's go…"

Leaving the safety of their ship the Yautja slowly and quietly began to walk single file.

Each cloaking as soon as they were clear of the ramp.

"This direction to the water" Gharack clicked in his mask.

Skillfully the three males began crossing through uneven, thick, grassy, terrain.

Tragg grumbled as he followed his brothers, flicking through his different view modes in his visor.

The scent in the air changed, it smelt like boiled rot and it was getting stronger by the step.

At the same time the ground underneath them began to get dense and muddier.

Gharack stopped.

"Our tracks…" he looked to either side, the muddy band of terrain extended quite far in both directions and it was too wide to jump across.

Looking up he tried to see if there were any trees strong enough for them to leap from and clear the mud without making tracks.

But there was nothing thick enough; all the trees around them were sickly, bending over either from the heat of the pod's entry, or from poor growth.

He snarled but he knew that their goal was on the other side of this muddy ravine.

"Yu'icha you go that way with Tragg I'll go this way, we'll regroup on the other side, but if you reach the pond; stop and wait, do not try to fight the serpents alone. All three of us need to be together to deal with them."

The two younger brothers nodded.

"Remember stay cloaked, avoid making any traces, we're going to have to clean up after ourselves here…"

He smacked his chest, "let's bag some serpents!"

-1-

Naomi walked alone along the balcony of her room, staring out across the carefully cultivated golf courses owned by the hotel she was currently in.

She watched the tail end of a comet or shooting star pass across the sky and she wistfully sighed.

Tomorrow would come early and she was not looking forwards to it.

'But' she thought… 'But maybe it won't be… maybe it's better this way?'

She didn't know what to think, she didn't know how to react.

But she did know that she was tired, and the bed looked soft.

Leaving the door to the balcony open she walked towards the soft, plush, looking sheets.

Starting from the top of her blouse she began to unbutton the white shirt and when it came free she threw it to end of the bed.

She was petulant, she was angry, but she just didn't know how to deal with it.

Naomi huffed and continued undressing.

Bringing the zipper down on her skirt she slipped the tight fitting blue material off her hips. It fell down to her heels and she stepped one foot out of it while moving the other up to kick the skirt in the vague direction of her shirt.

She pulled off her stockings and left them on the floor once they were free.

Now in her underwear she walked to the bathroom of the small hotel room, passing the threshold of the doorway her feet touched the cold tile of the dark room and she paused.

Her hand felt the wall in the dark for the light switch and after finding it she stopped, her thin fingers waiting to flick it on.

'No' she thought, 'no fuck it, I want to just sleep.'

She turned and strode towards the bed, reaching her hands behind her back to unclip her bra.

'Damn this shit… I'm tired, and I don't care anymore.'

Taking her bra off she threw it behind her carelessly, with her breasts exposed to the air she breathed a little easier.

The cool air felt nice along her skin, and she allowed herself a moment of quiet before her inner monologue resumed.

Her thoughts continued as she went through a list, 'fuck the routine, screw all this shit, I want to sleep for a year, I don't want to wake up unless I'm going to be past all this _shit…_ '

She pressed the switch on the wall beside her bed and then eagerly descended into the covers.

With the room now in darkness her eyes adjusted to the limited blue ambient light from the open windows and the balcony door.

The side of the hotel she was on had no, or almost no, artificial light, and instead starlight and the reflected light in the night sky was the only way to see.

Wrapping the covers around her she sighed with a small degree of satisfaction, at least the bed was still a comfort to her. Her world may be upending, her life might entirely be shifted, but the comforts she knew; sleeping, sheets, warm drinks, cool air… They were the same.

And even if she didn't really think it, the comforts she knew were going to be her coming refuge to deal with the marriage she was being locked into.

Staring at the ceiling in the dark Naomi thought to herself about something to happen, anything that could happen to end this situation.

'Maybe…' she thought '… maybe tomorrow when mother meets his parents… anything about their party affiliation to offend her. Anything! To stop this…'

She brought a hand to her forehead and rubbed her eyes.

'Oh fuck it hon… it's not going to happen… Just,' her inner voice stopped, 'just grin and bear it… we can do it…'

The night was not about to get any shorter for her, and her thoughts and stress would continue to plague her mind.

Drawing out the time it took till she finally slipped into sleeping.

-2-

Slamming his way through the underbrush Gharack was breathing heavily, he'd made his way to the edge of the water reservoir they saw the pod crash into.

He thought that he had heard them…

The serpents were out of the water and moving, he knew it, they must have been. It took them so long to land and then reach this place that those little slimy alien bastards must have been out and about.

In reality they were barely fazed by their crash landing.

Close by his brothers uncloaked and came into his peripheral vision.

"There!"

Yu'icha pointed towards some deep tracks in the muddy shore of the water.

The thick tracks were easy to see, and the brothers would easily be able to gain on the young xenomorphs.

But before they could, there was the pod.

"We'll make sure they're all out of the water, and then we need to destroy that pod."

Tragg and Yu'icha nodded, and the three brothers got closer to the water, activating their plasma casters they spread out and each switched their visor-vision modes to different levels.

With the water more easily viewable they had to wait for several minutes.

Necessity demanded it, and while Gharack wanted to get them all as fast as possible, going quickly without thinking is how hunters get themselves killed.

Even though each minute they spent allowed the xenos to get two minutes ahead, they had to do this right.

There was no way around it.

So they waited and waited, watching the motionless water dance with the thousands of small bugs flying along its surface.

Finally in the oppressive silence of the night one of them spoke up and stated the obvious:

"It's clear…" Tragg said.

Gharack snorted, "Then you go and blow the pod."

Tragg stared at his brother for a moment; Gharack was still intently searching the water before turning his shoulders slowly to look at his brother.

Tragg eventually broke and grumbled a low growl.

He was the one carrying their explosives and their 'cleaning kit' after all.

On his back was a small container, like a rucksack, which held all the tools they'd need to ensure that their presence would be able to be covered up, it had acids, small explosives, EMP charges and other such tools.

But he also had along his belt a bandolier of special charges which were powerful enough to vapourise something as big as the escape pod.

Reaching to his belt he found and unclipped one of these large charges.

Inspecting the unit he turned the device on and went through the settings on its small view screen. He estimated the range of yield the job was going to take and he set the digital dial accordingly.

Now came getting into the water.

A stupidly risky move, he wanted to just throw the bloody thing into the water but, there was only one way to ensure they blew up the whole thing, and that was actually attaching the device to the target.

Sensing his brothers apprehension Yu'icha pointed to his dual plasma casters and tried to be reassuring, "Don't worry Tragg, I won't miss if there's one still down there."

Gharack, supporting the claim spoke in an even tone, "Fear not Tragg,"

Looking at both of his brothers Tragg nodded and took a deep breath through his mask.

Without any more hesitation he walked towards the muddy edge of the water and began to enter its murky and refuse covered surface.

It was cool to his skin, and felt heavy, dirty, like it was runoff water.

He kept walking through the water towards the pod, his weight easily kept him along the bottom of the water and he sparingly took breaths, aware that his bio-mask had a very limited supply of purified atmo.

He drew his wrist blades and held the bomb close to his chest with his free hand.

Tragg carefully watched all around him for potential attackers in the murky, thick, water. But with each step he kicked up more black soil and dirt.

Even though his mask was able to filter through the levels of ambient light, see heat, electromagnetic signatures, and so on, the smokescreen caused by the clouds of pitch black dirt under the water gave him so much interference and distortion that his mask actually became a hindrance more than an aid.

And in frustration he said on his in-mask communicator, "I can't see dick down here!"

Yu'icha sniggered; Gharack would have laughed too if the situation wasn't so tense for him as the leader.

Watching Tragg's progress through the surface of the water Gharack responded through his communicator, "You're just a few steps from it, hold out your hand you'll be able to feel it."

Yu'icha moved so he could try and see his brother on the other side of his underwater dirt cloud.

Gharack could barely see the pod now the dirt was so bad, but he had to squint to make out the side of the dark metal life-boat.

Tragg tentatively held out his hand as he tried to see through the darkness, feeling for the wall of the pod he hoped it was just a step away so he could place the bomb and get the fuck out of the water.

Then his hand touched something rough and relief came to him,

"I've got it!" he announced.

Keeping his right hand flat against the rough surface he then brought up his left with the device.

The bomb he had was a similar size and shape as that of a claymore-mine, but its back had two large, hooked, spikes which allowed a user to attach it to almost any surface, given enough strength.

So to mount it to the side of the pod Tragg held the device with both hands and brought it above his head, though he couldn't see his target he was able to estimate and guess as to how close it was, and how much force he needed underwater to get it to stick.

Pulling downwards at an angle, and with all his strength, Tragg instead drove the metal spikes of the explosive into a Xenomorph which had been attached to the side of the pod.

Upon being stabbed the Xenomorph immediately came to.

One could wonder why it didn't awake when Tragg touched it earlier, presumably it was asleep.

When the surface of the 'pod' moved under him and started to swim through the water Tragg was so surprised that he didn't let go of the bomb at first.

He just screamed and swore in surprise instead while hanging on.

The serpent silently hissed and writhed around in surprise at the shock it had received and it kicked Tragg away from itself.

Its inexperience and its own surprise rendered its first few attacks harmless as it slashed the water near Tragg and its tail tried whipping him away.

Yu'icha immediately growled and roared now able to see what was going on under the water.

Gharack, from where he was standing, was still unable to see his brother through the thick mud kicked up from the bottom.

Tragg took hold of the xenomorphs tail and pulled it towards himself, the alien instead tried to claw at the bottom of the water back towards the pod.

Before the mud completely obscured his vision Tragg got an idea.

He let go of the alien's tail and kicked its hind legs, pushing it closer to the pod embedded in the mud.

Turning away from the alien Tragg kicked off the bottom of the reservoir with both his feet and immediately started swimming to the shore, and while he did so he brought his right hand to press the detonate button on his wrist computer.

Behind him the bomb exploded and sprayed liquid everywhere, creating a wave which pushed him up out of the water and past the edge of the 'shore'.

He flew head over heels almost ten metres from the water, while his brothers were both blown onto their asses from the shock, the surprise, and the mass of water which splashed and soaked them both.

Landing through a small tree and onto his back Tragg couldn't help but begin to laugh. He clicked his tusks and his laughter began to build louder and louder.

He had killed his first Xeno… With a high-yield anti-armour mine

He remained lying on his back in the brushes while his two, soaked brothers came over to look at him.

Gharack was unimpressed and stared at his youngest brother with bewilderment.

"What if the yield was wrong Tragg? You could have killed us all!"

Tragg pointed at his brother's expressionless mask and continued to laugh, clicking his tusks and croaking wildly.

Kicking his brother in the head Gharack turned away from his cackling and to look at their surroundings.

The force from the explosion had sent water up into the air in every direction.

But the nature of the explosive insured that there wasn't going to be any fragments larger than a coin for anyone to find.

Gharack shook his head, "Tragg… you are so unbelievably lucky you were far enough away from that damn thing…"

Gharack didn't want to imagine what would have happened if Tragg was actually in the kill radius of the bomb.

"Thank the gods it was underwater… or we'd all be dead right now…"

"One down, I suppose…" Yu'icha said walking up towards Gharack.

Shaking his head Gharack pointed to the muddy tracks of the remaining aliens.

"And more to go… Let's get going…"

The two started after the tracks and Yu'icha called to Tragg, "Get up, come on…"

Tragg huffed and shook his dreadlocks from side to side before jumping to his feet.

The quick encounter had given him a huge burst of adrenaline, as well as other chemicals native to the Yautja physiology.

He was quite elated.

Brushes with death were one of the greatest highs a Yautja could experience, and Tragg was now in a much better mood than he was before.

"Let's kill some more boys!" He called out before running after his brothers.

Drawing his combi-stick he extended the spear and began thrusting it into the air, full of excitement.

"Whew! That was awesome!" He laughed again, "How high did I go there?"

Yu'icha rolled his shoulders in annoyance but stayed with his eyes fixed on the tracks they were now following.

Gharack however momentarily indulged Tragg, hoping that a little attention would satisfy him, "You did go pretty high up there…"

Tragg pounded his chest with his left fist. Growling and stabbing the air with his spear again he nodded to himself.

"Woo yeah!"

Gharack nodded quickly, "Now shut up… those slippery little xenos might be aware we're out here now…"

The reservoir that the pod had crashed into, and the marshy wooded area the brothers were now traveling through was all artificial.

It was built as a drainage basin, and as a way to redirect and create a new marshland so that a massive golf course at a nearby hotel resort could be built.

The land that the golf course, and by extension, the hotel, used to be on was once useless marshes… ten years ago.

However with better advents in technology and infrastructure in this area, it was much easier to drain, re-direct water, and create good, useable, real-estate out of previously un-passable terrain.

The displaced area of course needed somewhere new to go and the Yautja brothers were now, unwittingly, walking through it…

But addition to the large golf courses, artificial water-works and botanical gardens were also created. All of this work was to give the hotel and resort breathtaking manmade surroundings.

So all in all; the botanical gardens, the artificial river, waterfalls; everything around this raised and previously marshy area was an amazing feat of modern engineering.

But to drain into these areas required a lot of plumbing, and a lot of pipes.

Big pipes

Pipes big enough, let's say, for xenomorphs to crawl into and through…

After walking from the reservoir and through the marshy woods for a while the brothers eventually found where the xenomorph tracks led…

Yu'icha had gone ahead of the brothers, intently following the tracks of their quarry when all of a sudden he abruptly stopped.

Gharack stopped too, raising his hand to halt Tragg behind him and he waited to see if Yu'icha had come face to face with a xeno.

When his brother continued to stand motionless Gharack began to look at his Yu'icha with concern. Finally he had to break the silence,

"What's wrong?" He asked.

Wordlessly Yu'icha moved to the side so his brothers could see past him.

Ahead of them was a large culvert leading into the base of a hill.

The metal mesh covering of the culvert had been ripped open and all the tracks led into it.

Gharack's heart sank, and Tragg's previous excitement and eagerness evaporated.

Yu'icha looked to his brothers and flicked his dreadlocks off his shoulders.

Gharack growled and stomped towards the grating.

He knelt and peered into the darkness of the pipe.

It was too narrow for him to even attempt to get into; and even Yu'icha was too big for it. Tragg might have been able to fit, if he stopped eating for a week…

Their situation had turned very poor, very quickly.

Gharack growled again and brought his fist down to the metal top of the pipe, easily caving in the aluminium of the curved tube.

Following the pipe with his eyes he eventually looked up the hill and then he pointed to the top of it, "Maybe we can see where it leads… Come on!"

Gharack wasn't about to give up that easily.

Mounting the dirt incline Gharack began to climb the steep loosely packed hill. As soon as he came to the crest he could see lights.

A large complex lay across many open fields, and small wooded areas.

Humans…

'Gods be good, I hope there aren't a lot of them.' Gharack prayed.

He shuddered to himself, 'I swear on all that's holy if we get out of this with our skins I will fast and make offerings at a temple for a whole year…'

Yu'icha arrived beside Gharack and immediately growled at the sight before them.

Tragg slipped down the hill a few times but eventually reached the top, and breathlessly announced "Oh gods…"

Yu'icha nodded wordlessly before turning to Gharack.

"Looks like we're heading cross-country boys…"


	3. Chapter 3

Survive – Part three

It was daybreak and two technicians were making their way to one of the several pump monitoring stations hidden throughout the grounds of the resort.

Driving in a re-purposed golf cart the two men chatted about what it was that may have caused the error in the first place.

"Oh it's probably just back up from A-3 to B-1, it happens all the time."

Rocco Valdez, one of the chief mechanical technicians for the resort had with him one of the newer boys that had just been hired last cycle.

Their shift had just started and the first issue that Rocco decided to address was an alert or error message from one of their pipe monitors. It would either be a big job, or a small one. The previous day the whole staff of the resort had been informed that there was going to be a wedding going on at the hotel and that nothing was to go wrong.

Some really rich people or something, to be honest Rocco hadn't paid that much attention at the general 'all hands' meeting. He was primarily concerned about not having enough men to keep the water works all around the resort running smoothly.

Leaning towards his junior Rocco's voice changed tone, "Though…"

He raised his eyebrows and comically exaggerated his features, "It could be an alligator."

Toyo, his assistant, immediately became wide eyed.

"You're not serious are you!?"

Rocco kept his exaggerated expression before finally breaking and laughing.

"Nah, it's probably nothing like that. But yes there have been alligators in the pipes before."

Toyo shook his head, "It's way too early for this!"

"Oh don't worry about it, you just look in the breach, if there's an alligator like shape in there we just flush the pipes and send 'im back to the marshes he crawled in from."

Toyo's face lightened a little in relief, but he wasn't entirely convinced.

Clicking his tongue he looked towards the approaching station and shook his head, "I don't know man…"

The cart came to a stop and Rocco and Toyo climbed out, grabbing their tool bags from the back of the small vehicle Toyo continued; "I've got a bad feeling about this…"

Rocco laughed and shook his head as he brought out his keychain and approached the door.

"You 'new guys are always thinking the worst."

Pushing the brass key into the large lock of the door Rocco turned it and pushed the heavy metal door open with his foot.

The pump monitoring station was a glorified shed hidden on the resort's golf course behind several trees and an artificial hill.

It had no windows and was made out of concrete, so when the door swung open Rocco instinctively reached for the light switch to the side of the doorway.

"The lights are supposed to be automatic?" He asked rhetorically.

Toyo furrowed his brow, "Will we be resetting those too?"

Rocco nodded, "may as well, we're out here now."

Flicking the switch up and down several times nothing happened in the room.

"Oh for Christ's sake"

Reaching to his tool bag Rocco pulled out his work-light and clicked it on before walking into the small building.

Toyo followed suit and grabbed his own as he closely walked behind Rocco.

"Ok you go over to the display panel there see if it has power and I'll check the pump access."

Toyo nodded and made his way through the gloom of the damp shed to the large console built into the wall opposite the pumps.

There was light coming from the keyboard and when he found the monitor button the screen flashed to life brightly.

"There we are it looks like we have power."

Rocco turned to nod, "Good, check if it's main or auxiliary."

Toyo logged in with his credentials and waited, behind him he could hear Rocco grunting and making loud noises as he moved and got ready to do his inspection.

An error flashed on the screen as Toyo's password was denied.

"Oh come on… I typed it correctly!"

Reaching into his work overalls he pulled out a small note pad and flipped to the page that he had written his employee information on.

"Account number blah blah…" he read out loud, looking at the screen he nodded, "Yeah I got that correct."

Looking back to his hand he read out his password and then confirmed that it was the same one on the screen.

"What the hell… why isn't it working?"

He shook his head, "oh Rocco? I think my account is still too new, I can't get in."

He paused, waiting for his superior to respond.

"Rocco, I need you to come over and log in instead. I know how to do the rest but…"

Waiting for a response Toyo furrowed his brow in irritation, Rocco still had said nothing.

Taking his torch from the console desk Toyo clicked it on and turned around towards the pump and pipe access hatch.

"Rocco?"

The hatch was open and Rocco's tool bag was sitting beside the open hole.

"Really?" he exclaimed, "Come on Rocco! At least tell me you're going down already!"

Walking closer to the hatch Toyo bent down and peered into the pitch black round hole.

From where he was he couldn't see his boss, or his boss' light. But he could hear a hissing.

'Sounds like… a burst pipe?' He thought.

Getting closer to the hole the hissing stopped.

"Rocco!" he called into the darkness.

"Oh I get it, scare the new guy. Come on, how fucking childish." Toyo shook his head and continued talking into the hole.

"Rocco, we've got a job to do and lots more to get to today. I thought you were better than this sir."

The hissing was louder and somehow closer.

Toyo raised an eyebrow as he readjusted his handle on the work-light.

It looked like there was something wet really close to the entrance of the hole.

It was like a glistening shadow and the light reflected off of whatever of 'it' was.

Taking a breath Toyo had lost his patience. "Rocco!" he yelled.

The glistening thing moved and the hissing reached a crescendo as it revealed its arms and lunged at Toyo.

The small workman screamed as the xenomorph dug its claws into his shoulders and began pulling him, like Rocco previously, down into the dark depths of the concrete crawlspace.

-1-

It was early in the morning and Naomi was floating in her thoughts.

Her hands tried moving but the connection of brain to nerves was interrupted, and the muscles felt awkward. They didn't want to move.

Everything felt like it was still frozen, or encased in a state of paralysis.

But something had woken her up.

Blinking furiously Naomi tried moving her head.

At least her neck was responding to her control.

Turning her head enough the covers perched on her chin fell away and she was able to see the ceiling of the room.

It was bright, really bright…

Since she'd left the curtains and the door to the balcony open last night sunlight now poured in unabated by the cream coloured neutral material by the sides of the windows.

 _BANG! BANG! BANG!_

The door was struck again, and now Naomi's thoughts started to crystallise.

She'd heard the banging earlier, that's why she was awake in the first place.

'Why… why would someone be banging my door?' she thought.

Then she 'woke up' properly and it flooded back in; she was getting married, the guests were coming today, the rehearsal was going to be going on… Who else would be at her door this early? It was Missis Huang.

"Oh god, it's mother!" she exclaimed.

Almost as if on cue she could hear her mother's voice behind the thick door to her room.

It was muffled but she could hear some fumbling around on the door now.

Her body now woke up following the state of panic caused by her realisation.

Though uncoordinatedly she threw off her covers and tried pulling herself to the edge of the bed.

At the door she heard the electronic lock beep and her mother began pushing the door open.

"Mother!" Naomi announced as she covered her exposed breasts.

"Naomi, why aren't you up yet?" Her mother walked towards her unfazed by her state of semi-nudity.

"Come on, we need to get you dressed and down to see some of the guests while we do breakfast."

Now standing beside the edge of the bed Naomi's mother extended her hand towards her daughter.

This was a customary practise that Naomi had hoped was over, her mother used to lead her by the hand her entire childhood, and most of her adolescence.

She had hoped that, being an adult now, and about to be married, that the domineering strategy would be gone…

But the expression on her mother's face told her otherwise. Though it was early in the morning her mother was already prepared for the day.

Her hair was down in a western style and her makeup had already been meticulously applied.

Her mother was both graceful and beautiful… Naomi couldn't ever get her friends to believe that her mother wasn't still in her twenties; since she was actually in her mid-forties.

She'd never admit it, but Naomi's mother had always been heavily influenced by TV period dramas. Specifically ones about the early Han dynasty, with the court intrigue, sumptuous costumes, period speech and the princesses… Oh my god the princesses… Subconsciously Naomi's mother had, almost all of Naomi's life, emulated these TV princesses. Graceful beautiful flowers on the surface, but brutal fire breathing dragons underneath.

Reluctantly Naomi moved her right hand away from her chest and placed it in her mother's.

"The light yellow day-dress you have will be appropriate for today."

Naomi nodded as her mother helped her stand up and out of her bed.

Directing her daughter to the dresser she helped open the suitcase on top of the large cabinet and began helping to dress her.

Naomi cringed inside; she was a grown woman being dressed like she was still five.

Loudly the older Huang talked away, saying how the dress was going to look, how many people would be seeing how good she was, and how beautiful her daughter was… she was in her own world in a way as she chatted on.

Eventually Naomi's thoughts reached a head and her anxiety welled out of her.

"Mom… I… I can do this myself."

Meekly her voice announced her thoughts and she felt her chest twinge when she realised that she actually said what she was thinking out loud. Both women stopped for a brief second, quietly motionless.

However, missis Huang did something that Naomi had very rarely ever seen her do; she relented. The older woman stepped back and stood watching her daughter, and quietly her voice changed.

"Yes… you can."

Naomi's eyes widened as she looked up at her mother.

Missis Huang nodded again and she walked towards the door.

"I…" she paused as she looked downwards, "I'll wait outside until you're ready to go down."

Naomi finished dressing and her body shook occasionally as she did so.

'Okay… that's weirded me out… no, way worse than that. That was positively terrifying…'

Naomi tried to continue calmly, but her mother's heel-face turn was far too jarring to not focus on and the rest of the time she spent clipping her bra, pulling her stockings, and adjusting her dress her thoughts were occupied with her mother's change in demeanour.

-2-

Gharack and his brothers had cloaked themselves as the sunlight crept above the horizon.

They were running across the grass of the fourth hole of the golf course when they heard a scream echo across the deserted grounds.

The brothers didn't stop; instead they each intuitively adjusted their direction towards where they heard the sound emanate from.

Yu'icha growled and started breaking away from the other two as they came closer and closer to a small hillock and a human building.

Gharack and Tragg tried to match pace but Yu'icha was possessed by bloodlust.

"Yu'icha, slow down you fool!"

Gharack's size slowed him down and he could not keep up.

Tragg looked to his older brother and Gharack nodded, "Go after him!"

Nodding Tragg sprinted and began to close the distance.

Yu'icha arrived to the small building and stood just before the doorway.

Entering with weapons drawn Yu'icha growled lowly as he scanned the blackened room.

Through his visor's vision aiding abilities he could see through the thin floor that there were two human corpses, or at least what was left of them, strewn about underneath the building in a small maintenance area.

As Yu'icha steeled himself, he prepared to enter and before Tragg could stop his brother, Yu'icha leapt through the doorway and into the darkness.

"Yu'icha!" The smaller Yautja yelled.

Within the small building Gharack could hear Yu'icha roaring and the equally loud hissing call of a xenomorph.

Tragg entered after his brother while Gharack arrived to the door late.

Inside Yu'icha tried after the alien, but it instead escaped his grasp and dove into the cover of a hole in the ground of the small building.

Yu'icha huffed and brought his wrist up, with a whirr his two plasma casters targeted the hole and powered up charges.

Gharack growled as he finally entered the room. Looking at his brother charging his weapons Gharack smacked his shoulder and grumbled.

"Don't you dare you idiot!" Gharack's chest heaved as his lungs "Hold your fire I say Yu'icha, do not do it!"

Yu'icha held his hand over the fire button, and slowly he looked up from the hole and towards his brother's expressionless mask.

Tensely the two hulking creatures stared each other down.

Yu'icha growled and rumbled as he de-powered his plasma-casters.

Then he looked away from Gharack to the dark hole in the ground that the three males were standing around.

Tragg pre-emptively spoke in his defense, "I am not going down that hole after any fucking xenomorphs."

Yu'icha sharply laughed while Gharack sternly looked up from the hole.

"No you're right. No one's going down in there… Tragg, I want you to blow it."

Tragg rustled through his person before pulling out one of their charges.

"If they came through the pipes to this building," Gharack stopped and walked back out of the small building, ducking to get through the doorway.

"Then they can potentially appear at…" He began scanning their surroundings, before locating two other buildings similar to the one they were at.

"Yu'icha. Look,"

Yu'icha petulantly continued looking away from his brother into the hole.

Gharack growled loudly and suddenly, drawing Yu'icha's attention and reminding him of his obedience.

"Look over there."

Yu'icha rolled his shoulders and then walked out of the concrete building.

"Take one of the charges from Tragg, I'll take another. We blow all three of these buildings at the same time."

Yu'icha nodded and Gharack looked around towards Tragg.

The smallest of them also nodded while he fiddled around with the explosive in his hands.

"It will force the xenomorphs to surface. Simultaneously we scan the area of the building and the whole place over there."

He pointed and moved his hand in a circular motion to the area around the hotel building proper.

Yu'icha and Tragg looked towards the large building. "As soon as we spot them we need to get over there and begin culling the bastards."

Tragg held out two additional charges to both Yu'icha and Gharack.

Gharack eyed his brother Yu'icha carefully.

"Communication between us will be crucial to this going off correctly. Understood?"

Tragg nodded and so did Yu'icha.

"Do you understand Yu'icha?"

He stopped as he turned away from his brothers. "Yeah…"

Gharack didn't like his tone.

"This isn't time to be flying solo, I swear Yu'icha. This is not the time."

He stared intensely at his brothers back, and Yu'icha tilted his head to the side as he rolled his shoulders again.

"I heard you Gharack."

Straightening out to his full height, Gharack puffed out his chest and took a step towards his brother.

"Did you?"

Turning to see his massive brother, Yu'icha nodded and flicked his dreadlocks off his shoulders.

"I did."

Tragg grumbled, interrupting the two's tense exchange; "Watch the time guys… the sun is rising pretty fast… you know?"

Gharack growled, for once Tragg was right, they didn't have the luxury of time to be spend it screwing around playing games.

Groaning loudly Gharack set out towards the farther of the two stations. If Tragg was closer to Yu'icha it would probably ensure Yu'icha wouldn't try any heroics than if he was farther from them both.

Calling to his brother, "We've got to go, double quick pace. Okay?"

Yu'icha nodded and when he held his explosive securely under his arm began sprinting across the grounds towards his target. His speed was spurred on, no doubt, by his desire to get away from Gharack.

'He's going to do some stupid solo stunt, I know it…' Gharack thought to himself.

'But there's nothing I can do at the moment!'

His thoughts began to bark at each other as he thundered across the meticulously cut grass of the curious grounds.

For a moment, he actually allowed himself to scan the area in consideration as opposed to his clinical hunting vision of earlier.

'What a strange place the humans have built here… so unnatural, and yet no people other than those unfortunates earlier.'

Speaking in his mask Gharack ensured his brothers could still hear him.

"Tragg, did the little bastards come back at all or did Yu'icha scare them away completely?"

There was a moment of hesitation before Tragg responded.

"Scared away it looks like. I did poke my head into the hole… Despite my better judgement…"

Gharack could only imagine how much curiosity it took for Tragg to have done that, but he quietly continued to listen as his wide strides brought him closer to his target.

Yu'icha announced his presence over their communications, "And?"

"There was nothing but blood and those two dead humans…" He gruffly snorted, "Odd the creatures didn't decide to do anything more with them…"

"Tragg…" Yu'icha began, "They're basically newborns, and they're hungry more than anything… They're nowhere near hive-building time… yet"

Gharack nodded to himself, ''yet' was correct… though with so many humans in such a large area one of the beasts would certainly begin molting and develop into a queen…'

He shook his head at such a prospect, 'We'll be done far in advance of reaching that point in time…'

Shuddering… a horrible thought crossed his mind, 'Surely we'd never get that point… There's no possible way one of them would get to queen size…'

He increased his speed.

'By the gods… that'd be…' Gharack's thoughts were interrupted as Yu'icha's voice came through.

"I'm at the building Gharack." Yu'icha announced, "Tell me when you're at yours and we can converge on the remaining xenos…"


	4. Chapter 4

Survive – Part four

"One, two… mark!"

Gharack's voice was punctuated by three simultaneous explosions, low and muted, but distinct all the same.

They echoed and rumbled across the land and rattled the glass of the hotel.

The blast was low enough that nothing else exploded or was damaged other than the Yautja's intended targets.

Though it was still very loud… And was bound to cause the human's interest…

"Okay boys, we don't have a whole lot of time now, we need to get moving! Make sure you peel your eyes and watch for anything that'll indicate those xeno serpents."

"Roger!" Tragg responded excitedly.

"I got it…" Yu'icha snapped.

Gharack rumbled, both his brothers' attitudes were concerning.

Tragg was far too encompassed by the pleasure of 'the hunt' and Yu'icha was far too focused on killing his quarry.

Gharack needed them to be clinical, removed, and serious.

Instead they were both on either side of the Yautja emotional spectrum, and it worried Gharack…

They couldn't afford any more attention and risk then they were already going through.

As he scanned the area close to the base of the large human complex ahead of them he saw movement and his thoughts immediately paused.

'I've got them…'

Surfacing out of a cascading waterfall near the building several of the xenos whipped their way through the foliage of the cultivated gardens and towards the building.

"There they are!" He announced "Cloak and begin moving!"

Before Gharack began running Tragg's voice interjected, "Wait, Gharack! There's more coming out over there!"

Looking towards Tragg Gharack saw his brother point and he then followed his finger, sure enough he could see the tails of a few xenos disappear towards another area of the complex.

'No… no… no…'

'We're going to have to stay split up…' The concerned thought raced through Gharack's mind as his chest tinged with anxiety.

Tragg responded over their communications as if he had read Gharack's mind.

"Gharack I know… but I've got to go now! We don't have the time for this… We have to stay split up."

Gharack grumbled lowly and hissed at his misfortune before relenting and agreeing with the obvious.

"Go Tragg! And Yu'icha…"

Yu'icha interrupted his older brother before he could get the words out; "I know I'll cover Tragg."

Gharack nodded before his brothers melted from the visible spectrum.

He was reassured that Yu'icha and Tragg would be together, hopefully their judgement and better senses would prevail and they would stay focused on the task at hand.

But if they'd be going that far to left, leading away from the building then… The largest of the three Yautja huffed… It looks like he's going to be hunting these xenos on his own…

'Here's hoping the gods are good to me…' he prayed as he began leaping across the golf course towards his targets' wet tracks.

Gharack moved as fast as he could, his powerful thighs pressing downwards as his legs moved up and down like pistons. He pushed his feet off the ground and strode as widely as he could while maintaining his balance.

By contrast the slowest of the xenos he was going to be killing paused to look behind. It hissed loudly in Gharack's direction before getting out of view.

"You… slimy bastard!" He called at the creature.

Gharack clicked in anxiety as his feet leapt over some carefully manicured flowers. The small barrier of colour below him signified the edge of the grassy terrain and the stone walkways of the humans.

Though the whole area was still empty Gharack was concerned none the less that his footsteps loudly echoed across the stone.

He was obscured from view yes but… 'Oh Gah!' in frustration he rumbled in his head.

'Run the creatures down, melt the bodies, get out of dodge and get back home to the ship.'

He nodded to himself, 'That's it, that's all!'

'You've got this Gharack… Your brothers have got it as well… We're going to succeed here.'

-1-

Waking up in a place different than his hotel room Naomi's fiancé furrowed his brow as he tried to remember what he'd done the previous night…

-2-

Yue Chen had left the wedding planning wholly to his bride's mother. He paid for the venue, he helped finance the catering, and he had extended to the wedding coordinator that all additional expenses would be split between Naomi's parents and him.

While his soon to be wife was with her mother in the hall talking to the floral person Yue had chosen to sit out the majority of the preparation for their coming wedding in one of the resort's bars.

There were three lounges or bars on the resort's grounds, four if you count the rooftop VIP area. But at the present there was no one up there and the hotel had subsequently cordoned off access to the panoramic vista.

The main lounge was attached to the resorts large restaurant and was quite occupied with guests, there was a live jazz band providing music as people dined and Yue wasn't really into that scene…

The second lounge was below the ground level of the hotel and provided refreshment and additional entertainment for those guests who were using the indoor basement pools, gymnasium, saunas, or game rooms. So once again, not Yue's scene…

The third place to get alcohol was on the newest wing of the resort's main building. It was a nouveau, post-modernistic, dead-tech, design. House music was playing, there was a dance floor, and everything about the 'lounge' just went to show that it was like someone had taken a club, compressed it, and then stitched it onto the side of the building.

It was right up Yue's alley.

Before meeting Naomi through their mutual friend Yue was big into the club scene in Hong Kong, to him this lounge was like a little bit of home. And he took comfort in the free-flowing alcohol and pleasant service from the staff.

He felt like a winner.

He was high on his success. Naomi was beautiful, she was quiet, her family was good to him, and he was enjoying having the hotel staff literally catering to his every whim.

The hotel staff all were told that he was one of the 'wedding VIPs' and that his stay was to be as graceful and immaculate as possible.

Food was being comped, drinks were comped, and he had been given complete access to the golf course and all the resort's amenities and services at almost no additional charge. This all was extended to Naomi as well but… It was unclear whether she had been told of this or not.

'With what I've paid so far they better!' he thought and laughed to himself as he finished another scotch and soda.

Yue's parents would be arriving shortly after the beginning of the 'rehearsal' tomorrow. He didn't really care about it though, what did they really need to go through? He'd ask himself.

'It's simple; we stand, walk a little bit, sign a paper, smile, and then eat a shit-ton of food. Why did we need to do it twice?'

He shook his head as he placed the crystal glass back onto the small table beside his chair.

Leaning back into his chair he thought about his parents meeting Naomi's.

He smiled as he pictured the sight. He was sure that it was going to be a comical one, though her parents had emigrated out of China they were still very mainland… and, as Yue thought, 'provincial peasantry'. His family on the other hand…

British-Sino, islander, aristocrats…

He remembered his father fearing the hand over in the nineties quite a lot, but as a family they made the transition from rich capitalists to super-rich communists much easier than one would have expected…

Turns out the party officials that integrated Hong Kong into the PRC were even more corrupt than the British officials before them.

All of this is to say that Yue had an attitude.

He was… untouchable in a way.

He could get nearly anything he wanted, and his hypercompetitive job gave him the opportunities to crush people at will.

Moving vast amounts of capital around the world with a few clicks of the computer mouse can do quite a lot to a person's sensibilities.

Combine that with a little bit of narcissism, and a dash of douche-bag, and one might get Yue.

Short, cropped, jet black hair, strong facial features: a square jaw, prominent nose, straight white teeth, cleanly shaven. His lightly tanned skin and defined muscles.

When he and his fellows at his firm weren't doing coke off of random surfaces with hundred dollar notes, or banging co-eds, they were doing some form or another of physical activity.

Yue swam.

Yue could do a hundred metre free style in fifty minutes, and he often thought that perhaps in another life he could have been an Olympic athlete.

But then he thought about how much being an athlete like that in China would pay versus the amount of bank he was making right now.

His current job was the better choice he'd always agree.

When the bartender noticed that Yue had finished his drink he tapped one of the waiters to go and see if Yue wanted yet another.

When the smartly dressed man approached Yue he nodded his head forward as he took up the empty glass from the table.

"Is there anything else I can get you sir?" The waiter asked.

Yue looked away from the man as he briefly thought.

There had been a girl across the lounge's dancefloor… They'd locked eyes a few times before… He looked past several people before seeing her again.

She hadn't forgotten that they'd locked eyes several times throughout the evening and he smiled to himself.

"Yeah… See that table over there?" The waiter leaned forwards to better hear Yue and to see where he was directing to.

Yue pointed discretely towards the girl and her friends now returning from the dancefloor.

The waiter nodded, "I do sir."

With a curt movement Yue held up several bills and spoke, "Send them a bottle of Cristal."

The waiter nodded, "Very good sir."

Standing back up the waiter continued, "And for yourself sir?"

Yue smirked as he locked eyes with the girl again.

"Sir?" the man repeated.

Looking back up at the waiter Yue shook his head, "Nothing more for now."

The man nodded curtly before making his way back to the bar.

As the music changed and became something much louder than the previous track Yue watched eagerly as the waiter carried a tray of four glasses, sparkling with their contents of Cristal 'champagne'.

The four girls eye's all widened and they looked at each other in surprise as the waiter leaned down to serve them their new drinks.

The one that Yue had been having eye contact with smiled and bared her teeth slightly in surprise. As she took her glass she raised an eyebrow and held it up while nodding to Yue in acknowledgement.

Yue kept himself from grinning too excitedly as he returned the nod.

About an hour or so after sending the girls the champagne Yue was now dancing with the girl.

She was Caucasian, and she was thin, wearing a carmine mini pencil skirt, and a loose fitting V-neck black blouse.

She was wearing well applied makeup and her hair was a sandy blonde, but in the poor and dark lighting of the lounge it appeared a light brunette... Her pouty lips glistened with a bluish-purple gloss and her voice was tinged with a seductive tone.

As the two of them moved against one another to the rhythm of the music Yue's confidence and their complementary desires sealed the deal.

Yue didn't care he was going to be married, he didn't care that Naomi was literally in the same building. Or that her parents were here.

It all added to Yue's feeling of invincibility.

He was going to fuck this chick and in two days get married and then fuck Naomi.

It was funny, but Yue and Naomi had made out, they had touched each other and they had played, but they actually hadn't had sex yet.

He laughed whenever he thought of how old fashioned his relationship with Naomi really was, and he was looking forwards to the plethora of things he was going to be able to enjoy even as a married man…

As the music quieted for a moment, the girl Yue was dancing with leaned up and spoke in his ear,

"Do you want to get out of here?"

That was it.

That was the call phrase he was waiting for.

The mission was a go, the operation was to begin, and the eagle was about to land.

He leaned towards her ear and kissed it as he responded, "Your room?" She looked at him and expectantly licked her lips, her eyes and body language gave him his answer.

Then she took hold of his shirt and pulled him off the dancefloor and towards the hallway exit.

When they started out the lounge doors and towards the elevators on this side of the hotel they began to kiss each other.

Their breaths rose in noise and in speed as they then entered the elevator.

When they finally reached her hotel room Yue was groping her breasts through the V-neck of her shirt and she was firmly stroking his cock with a hand down his pants.

All the while as their hands played with each other they were kissing.

Pressing their lips against one another violently, making wet smocking sounds as they rolled their mouths together.

Occasionally their tongues would make contact and they'd taste each other's choice of drink.

When they got closer to her bed they finally broke away from each other, watching each other intensely the two began to strip.

Yue was much faster at getting his clothes off and he immediately got closer to the girl to help her undress.

Though help is probably the wrong word…

Yue pulled down her skirt and threw it behind him carelessly, she had already kicked off her heels and then he pulled down her black lace panties.

She was panting with expectation and he picked her up, tossing her lightly onto her bed.

Climbing on top of her their making out continued, she began stroking him with one hand while her other rubbed across his pectoral muscles. At the same time Yue pressed his hand against her pussy and slowly rubbed his fingers in between her labia.

Breaking off their kiss he raised his hand and spat onto his fingers before returning it to her pussy.

She moaned and cooed at the warm feeling against her clit and she licked her lips as she looked at her hand on his dick.

Looking up from his cock she was surprised that his abdomen was as defined as it was, she totally didn't expect him to be this fit.

"You work out don't you?" she asked.

Yue scoffed as he opened his eyes.

"Yeah… what gave it away?"

She smirked again, "Can you hold me up while fucking me?"

Yue raised an eyebrow, "Yeah, I think I can do that… Why? Is that what you like?"

He pressed his fingers against her clit harder as his index finger curled and started to enter her pussy. She moaned and sharply caught her breath at the insertion.

Letting loose a loud sigh she opened her eyes and stared at Yue as she pumped her hand up and down on his cock.

"Maybe…"

He nodded, "Well then we can try that… After you suck my cock"

She giggled, "Oh yeah?"

Yue's free left hand reached behind her head and took a hold of her blonde hair.

Moving his right hand away from her pussy he repositioned his body and led her by pulling her hair slightly. Opening her mouth she eagerly took Yue's cock onto her tongue.

Letting go of her hair Yue leaned backwards as he enjoyed the feeling of her tongue and mouth now moving up and down his shaft.

The noise she made as she continued to suck and blow his dick started to increase in wetness and he grunted at the pressure she was now putting on him.

Pulling her head away from Yue, his cock slipped out from her lips now glossy with a thick layer of spit.

"Okay boy… you going to fuck me now or what?"

Yue took hold of her arms and easily lifted her up, he moved around a little bit before they were positioned properly but he easily held her up as the two of them began pushing against one another.

She began to moan loudly at each thrust Yue made and she began to get louder, "Oh yeah… that's it… fuck me…"

Yue smirked as he looked down at her back.

Her skin glistened with small sparkles.

She must use a body wash, soap, or a skin cream with that sparkly shit in it. He always hated it because it was such a bitch to get off… The idea of that frustration spurred him on a little bit and the next few thrusts were much more aggressive than before.

The girl welcomed them just the same and her voice cooed out in pleasure as Yue's body slapped up against hers. "There… just there… f-f-fuck… y-yes…"

For about an hour and a half the two would continue to fuck, loudly, until finally they slept.

-3-

When Yue actually woke up, he was lying out of the bed on the floor of the room, the back of his head pressed up against the glass door of the balcony.

"Ugh… fuuu." He groaned and blinked rapidly as he looked for his boxers.

Reaching lazily towards his underwear he remained sitting on the carpet flooring while he pulled the blue and red striped designer-named clothing back on.

He closed his eyes as he tried to centre himself.

"One… two… three…" he began to whisper.

Reaching ten he opened his eyes and stood up.

His grogginess melted away and he sobered up as he turned around to the bright light coming in through the large glass panes.

He stretched his arms outwards and exhaled. He felt like a king…

'Fuck yeah I am…' he thought. 'I am a king!'

He smiled as he reached for the balcony door's handle.

Clicking the small lock latch off he opened the door in a swift motion and a cool breeze entered the room.

"Ooooh! That's brisk!" he said in his native Cantonese.

Behind him he heard the shifting sound of his companion stirring… She groaned and turned herself into the pillows of her bed, making sure her previously exposed face would remain warm under the comforter.

Taking a step forwards he cringed at the cool concrete under his bare foot as he now stood on the small balcony of the room.

Below him lay the expansive golf courses of the resort.

Some of the grounds' sprinklers were on, 'How early was it?' he thought.

He went to look at his watch, but as he brought up his wrist he noticed just his plain skin.

'You took it off dumbass…' he laughed at himself and shook his head before he returned his hand to his side.

Taking deep breaths and enjoying the view and the breeze on his skin Yue started tracing his eyes along the small hills and trees adorning the course.

All of a sudden there was a rumble. A big one…

Yue took hold of the railing and instinctively lowered his centre of gravity.

"What the fuck!" he exclaimed.

The rumble rose in loudness and then stopped.

The windows of the hotel rattled and the trees visibly shook, in the distance car alarms started going off in an irregularly timed chorus.

Smoke and dust rose from several places across the landscape.

'Is this an earthquake?' he immediately thought 'or… or a tsunami?'

He looked towards the small stretch of coast he could see from his current position.

There were no large waves to be seen. The sea looked calm and rolling… It looked normal to Yue…

"What the fuck…" he spoke under his breath.

Returning his eyes to the smoke and dust blowing from the golf course he watched for any additional movement.

Then below him, on the greenery, he saw what looked to be a large figure appear and then disappear rapidly.

"What was that!" he involuntarily yelled.

He brought himself closer to the railing and peered over towards the small gardens and courtyard at the base of the hotel on this side.

Then what he saw unsettled him even more.

Several large… blackish… t-things! Sprinted out from nowhere and then darted from his view.

They were really just black, wet looking, blurs. He couldn't make out any kind of discernable shapes and his mind was totally confused.

"What the fuck?" he spoke under his breath.

Turning away from the balcony he jumped towards his pile of clothes, dressing hastily before grabbing his watch and phone off the nightstand.

His companion stirred and came out from the covers.

"What was that bang?" she asked, her voice was groggy and still sounded inebriated. Her 'a' sounds carried and blended into her words, making her sentence sound like one long exclamation.

"I don't know…" Yue said reactively, "I got to… I," he looked back out the window then to his watch. "I gotta get out of here…"

The girl furrowed her eyebrows and pouted before immediately her expression changed, "Wait… what?"

She blinked and then tried sitting up, "Listen fuck head… I'm not that-"

Yue interrupted her, "Look Karla? Cherry? Whatever… I've got to go, it was nice but there's something going on."

He brought up his phone and started looking through his news feed as well as checking weather alerts for the area.

Yue made it to the door and ignored the rising voice behind him.

He didn't care about that woman, she meant little more than a good time to him.

His new family however, and his soon to be wife? If there was a crisis brewing, he couldn't afford to be absent.

Now was a time to take charge and show off, to them at least. He didn't give a shit about anyone else here. Most of the wedding guests weren't here yet, and the other people in the resort could pound sand for all Yue cared.

-4-

"I think a human saw us!" Tragg announced as he and Yu'icha ran cloaked beside one another.

Yu'icha snorted, "How? We've been cloaked this entire time, and the blasts weren't even that loud…"

In addition to the sound of them huffing and breathing heavily as they ran, the area echoed with the sound of multiple alarms.

"Yu'icha… Listen! The humans totally heard those explosions!"

"Gah! We're still cloaked!"

Tragg clicked his tusks in annoyance; Yu'icha should be taking his concern more seriously.

"I don't know Yu'icha, but mark my words!"

Yu'icha looked over his shoulder at his smaller brother.

"Those serpents are going to be more trouble than you think!"

Yu'icha huffed and turned his head back forwards.

They were sprinting after their targets that had darted towards a strange white concrete structure. It was made of several levels, and it had a way down into the depths of the ground. On each of the levels were human vehicles. They were all left abandoned?

'No, no… this must be a storage facility for the humans.' Yu'icha thought.

Tragg groaned as they got closer to the building, the tracks of their prey had obviously gone down the underground ramp.

Into the dark, into the close quarters that the xenomorph excelled in,

Yu'icha smacked Tragg's arm, "Quit your bitching. And never forget this is all *your* fault."

Tragg growled and Yu'icha matched it.

They paused at the top of the ramp and stood tensely for a moment, their blank expressionless masks staring at one another. Yu'icha's voice came out, roughly, and coldly: "Gharack isn't here Tragg… Don't forget that."

Yu'icha quietly took the lead and began descending down the grey ramp into the dim underground chamber.

Tragg rolled his shoulders and stood quietly before following.

Yu'icha had threatened Tragg.

And the smallest of the three Yautja knew that his brother was upset, he knew he was in a 'mood'… but would Yu'icha actually… k-kill him?

Tragg stopped mid stride as he took hold of his combi-stick.

'I don't know what's worse, the fact that he said that… or that I can't tell if he'd actually do it or not…'

Hesitantly Tragg followed his brother as the two of them continued behind the xeno tracks.


	5. Chapter 5

Survive – Part five

"Good morning father" Naomi rounded the corner with her mother and politely bowed as they entered into the hotel's restaurant.

Her father was a stern man, a real _paterfamilias_ , but at the same time he loved his daughter… So long as she complied with the family's designs…

Nodding his head the father Huang returned the bow.

"We have a few of the cousins arriving soon; I told them we'd make space if they'd like to join us for breakfast."

Taking their seats at the table Naomi prepared herself mentally for the coming performance she was going to have to give.

'Just breathe' she thought. As she put a napkin over her knee one of the waiters in the sparsely populated restaurant began to make his way to their table.

'Just eat, just breathe, you'll be fine…' she looked at either of her parents who were now in a conversation about banal details of who had arrived already, who was going to arrive before another and so on.

To Naomi it seemed petty… what did it matter what time people got here before the ceremony? Or even before the day of for that matter…

She shook her head quietly and began to butter a croissant.

"Good morning!" the waiter cheerfully announced.

Naomi's mother nodded and immediately took up the command of the situation.

"I called down earlier," she began, "I asked about a certain custom order?"

The waiter immediately nodded in recognition, "Oh! Yes, yes of course!"

He stepped backwards, "I'll be right out with it for you all, are there any drinks I might get you as well?"

Naomi's mother responded, "Coffee."

Her father looked to the waiter and made his order, "Coffee as well…"

The two parents looked at Naomi and she meekly piped up; "T-tea, for me… Sencha if you have it."

The waiter nodded and briskly departed.

Her parents' conversation continued and Naomi took a breath.

'Maybe…' she thought, 'maybe this isn't actually all that bad?'

The noise in the restaurant wasn't quiet; it was low, but not loud either. So when a rumble shook the whole building everyone stopped.

The silverware on the tables shook and clanged together.

The windows vibrated and shook.

Everyone immediately had the same expression and question on their lips; 'what was that?'

Naomi furrowed her brow and looked at either of her parents with concern.

"What in the hell?" her father said in his native tongue.

"What was that hon?" her mother responded.

Some people walked from their tables towards the windows of the restaurant to try and catch a glimpse of whatever it was that had caused the noise.

Outside smoke and dust billowed from several places.

A woman near the windows gasped and pointed while exclaiming, "Fire! Oh my God there's a fire!"

Waiters rushed to the windows and some staff from the kitchen poked their heads out the service door.

The Maître D' rushed to two waiters by the window and immediately asked them what was going on. The men all exchanged hushed words and the Maître D' brought a small handheld radio from under his jacket. After speaking into the small device he turned around and started towards the entrance of the restaurant.

"Ladies and Gentlemen… your attention please!" He announced.

"There is no cause for alarm; we have technicians out on the grounds right now as I speak. The noise you heard was part of their work and I assure you that nothing is abnormal."

Naomi still remained on the edge of her seat eyes glued to the window.

Though there was foliage in front of the glass she swore she saw movement outside… rapid movement.

'Whatever I just saw…'

She shivered.

'That made that noise… I'm certain of it…'

…

Tragg and Yu'icha stomped their way down into the parking garage, hot on the tail of their quarry.

After several tense minutes of silence Tragg was beginning to really squirm under the attitude of his brother.

Scanning the underground cavern filled with human vehicles they tried to identify any hiding spot large enough for the xeno.

"Just had to try and impress the female…" Yu'icha grumbled, turning to look over his shoulder he shot a glance at his smaller brother.

"What would you have even done with her?" he asked rhetorically.

Tragg shifted uncomfortably as he tried to stay focused. Though the youngest of the three couldn't help but attempt to alleviate the tense situation, "Well obviously I was going to amaze her with my bedding prowess."

Yu'icha looked back forwards and chuckled but his voice still seethed with venom, "Like we need you to breed. One Tragg is enough stupidity for all of us."

Tragg adjusted his stance and grip, "Well I don't know… it's hard to breed with an ass."

Yu'icha scoffed and began to laugh in surprise.

Tragg chuckled as well… 'Finally he seems like he doesn't want to murder me down here!'

"That so?" Yu'icha asked in disbelief.

Tragg smiled under his mask and nodded comically, he had to keep this going and fully defuse his brother's ire.

"Oh yeah, it might be tight and warm and all that, but eh it's the best alternative."

Yu'icha stole another glance over his shoulder, he continued to chuckle but he repeated his question, but this time with a more comedic tone, "Oh really?"

Tragg nodded, "Especially if she says 'oh I have nothing wrong with breeding! Just not with you!'"

Yu'icha laughed loudly and looked back forwards.

"So…" he tried to ask, "So that's as far as you get then huh?"

Tragg chuckled, "Yeah, but hey I don't mind!"

Yu'icha shook his head from side to side and his dreadlocks whipped, "Oh gods!" he said while laughing, "Why? Why don't you mind?"

His chest rumbled with laughter and he tried to contain himself while he waited for Tragg's response.

"Well," he paused. Chuckling at his own joke, "I'm more of an ass man to begin with."

Yu'icha roared with laughter and descended to one knee.

Tragg joined him in the heavy laughter.

"Gods above…" Yu'icha finally said.

"You're so full of it!" smacking Tragg in the leg Yu'icha began to stand.

Clearing his throat and shaking his shoulders Yu'icha began to get serious again.

"Ok, okay… Funny… But we still need to find where the little fucker's gone…"

Tragg nodded and then looked back to the left side of the cavern he was visually covering.

Yu'icha switched through his vision modes but grumbled in dissatisfaction. "I can't see a bloody thing…"

Tragg furrowed his brow; neither could he.

The underground cavern was poorly lit and pipes and wires ran along the ceiling in multiple directions, and under where Tragg and Yu'icha were progressing towards there was a large junction.

Yu'icha stopped mid step when he saw the open ceiling junction.

Without moving his eyes off of the target he reached his free left hand behind him to touch Tragg.

"Up there." He pointed.

Tragg nodded and the two slowly began to walk underneath the open access portal in the piping.

"Little space vermin!" Tragg exclaimed.

Yu'icha nodded, "They certainly make the arachnoids seem like a piece of cake…"

"Remember those? One got out of containment and it took days to purge them all from the station ventilation systems."

Tragg shuddered as he thought about the small insectoids, slithering, clicking, with their multi-jointed legs… 'Egh!'

The muscled and virile male Yautja shook in disgust and revulsion. "I hate bugs…" he declared.

Yu'icha turned around as he quietly chuckled.

It was fortuitous that he did at that moment. Unbeknownst to the two Yautja but one of their xenomorph targets had been following them closely from the side of the dark piping above them.

The black xenomorph's tail was moving to impale Tragg when Yu'icha turned around and though he was still upset at his brother and wanted to hit him for getting them into this mess, he didn't want and wasn't about to let Tragg get killed.

"Behind you!" Yu'icha roared.

Tragg tried to turn around as fast as possible but the xeno hissed and leapt forwards, slashing at Tragg with its tail as it landed onto the concrete floor.

The sharp barbed blade of the tail scratched the side of Tragg's mask and cut down his left shoulder and pectoral as he tried to dodge the attack.

As Tragg moved out of the way Yu'icha lunged at the xeno with his blades.

He roared and the xeno responded with a long hiss, readying itself it moved as Yu'icha got closer and it slashed forwards with its claws as its tail whipped behind and helped balance it's movement.

Tragg reeled from the pain of the slash but he moved his combi-stick into a readied position.

Having fought together since they were pups Yu'icha and Tragg immediately began to complement each other's strikes.

Wordlessly the two Yautja began to dance with the xeno.

Dodging Yu'icha's slashes the xeno tried to slash along his arm. Yu'icha didn't take his eyes off of Tragg but he knew that his brother's spear would be coming right beside him in a millisecond, all he had to do was stay on his current course.

Yu'icha knew he was about to be injured but he also knew that Tragg wasn't going to miss.

Bracing himself for the pain he watched as the xeno's claws began to slash along Yu'icha's right forearm.

On cue Tragg's spear cut through the air in front of Yu'icha's mask and impaled itself into the xeno's chest, pushing the creature back before he injured Yu'icha any worse.

With the xeno pushed back Yu'icha lowered to a crouch and brought his left arm upwards to catch the alien's tail.

With his right injured he pulled it towards his abdomen and lowered himself as much as he could for Tragg.

As his brother lowered below him Tragg pushed off the concrete floor and gave as much force as he could behind his spear.

The xeno hissed and screamed as the metal weapon lodged itself deeper into its thorax.

Moving to the right of the xeno Tragg maintained his tight hands on the thrashing beast while below Yu'icha moved to the left as he held the deadly tail-tip in his tight grip.

"Keep it pinned Tragg!" He roared as he avoided the xeno's sharp kicking legs.

"Got it!" The younger Yautja responded.

As Yu'icha began to stand he came around to the back of the pinned down and thrashing xeno.

"Watch the blood!" Tragg announced.

Yu'icha nodded, he couldn't cut the creature's tail, a xeno would then start flicking their blood as a natural weapon…

'But!' he thought, 'I bet I can still break the damn thing!'

Pushing through the pain from the cut along his arm Yu'icha wrapped his right hand around the tail and brought the appendage towards his knee.

The hard carapace cracked and crinkled when he made the segmented tail bend further than it was meant to.

The xeno howled in pain and hissed louder and louder in frustration as it began to gnaw at Tragg's spear tip.

"Yu'icha! It's coming loose!"

Letting go of the now broken and useless tail Yu'icha stepped backwards and brought up his wrist computer.

"I'm going to melt the fucker!" he announced and as he pressed his wrist-display, both his shoulder cannons began to whirr and power up.

Tragg's spear finally gave away and the xeno bit the metal weak enough so its acid blood freed itself. Though the xeno was no longer pinned before it could attack Tragg, he jumped backwards.

Yu'icha's plasma casters fired two large bolts and scored direct hits on the alien's oblong head and its bleeding thorax.

The bolts loudly whooshed forwards, vaporising large holes in the target.

Tragg readied his weapon again anyway and the two Yautja stared at the crisping and charred xeno for several tense seconds.

"You okay?" Tragg asked.

Yu'icha nodded, and repeated the question, "Are you?"

"Yes… nothing serious."

Yu'icha wordlessly stepped forwards.

Tragg relaxed slightly and brought his spear up to his mask.

"The whole tip's gone?!" he exclaimed in surprise, "Damn creature ate and melted through five inches of metal!"

Yu'icha grumbled in agreement. "Good thing you've got two tips to that thing."

Tragg chuckled, "Okay, now what do we do for the rest of the body?"

"Acid?" Yu'icha asked.

Tragg looked down, "Right, right."

He unslung his backpack container, their 'cleaning kit' and running his hand across the many small pouches and pockets within before he located a phial of their 'cleaner acid'.

"Be careful with this shit…" he announced handing over the dangerous container to Yu'icha.

Yu'icha handled the liquid's container with extreme care. It was a specialised and neigh-unbreakable container, but that didn't stop him from having a very rational and genuine apprehension of the liquid within.

Removing the lid he carefully poured its contents over top of the lifeless xeno.

Within seconds the charred body began to bubble and hiss with dissolution.

"These things are bloody smart…" Tragg huffed.

Yu'icha didn't look away from the liquefying alien remains but he agreed.

He'd never hunted these things before… And after that sudden and surprise encounter he definitely did not enjoy it.

'These xeno's are a whole other kind of game…'

"Let's keep going…" Tragg huffed, "there's probably one more level to this structure…"

Yu'icha stood and took a step forwards before stopping.

"Wait!" he called.

Tragg turned.

"It knew we were here…"

Tragg nodded.

"We're cloaked…"

Tragg's shoulders moved, "It… they can sense us through the cloaks?"

Yu'icha looked at the now evaporating xeno.

"They must have… I know we were loud but… these are young creatures there's no way they're smart enough for echo location like that yet?"

Tragg shook his head.

"They must be able to see or… or sense us somehow."

"I don't know Yu'icha… But… how many more are there?"

Yu'icha had to admit… he couldn't remember, and then his heart sank.

"Well there was the one at the pod… this one… I don't know…"

Tragg gulped, "There was like… eight, right? It was an even clutch I know that!"

Yu'icha shook his head.

"Gods damn it… Gharack knows…"

The younger Yautja groaned as he turned back around, "What about the pipes? W-what if…"

His voice became low, "What if one starts to molt?"

Yu'icha eyed his brother mutely.

A tense few seconds passed before the Yautja wordlessly began to make their way deeper into the parking garage.

"One more floor… We'll clear it, surface, ask Gharack how many there are total and deal with it as it comes, alright?"

Tragg nodded.

"None of them are going to molt… we need to be fast, we'll be off this rock in no time…"

"Are we?" Tragg asked.

Only the noise of their respective feet echoing off the concrete could be heard.

"Before sundown at least…" Yu'icha finally answered.

…

Gharack followed his three xenos through the open glass double doors into the human building.

The slowest tried to keep up with its siblings but Gharack easily gained on it. The reason for its lack of speed was that one of its feet had been crushed by rubble from the Yautja's earlier demolition.

Gharack drew his wrist blades and leapt at the slow, lame, xeno before it could round the corner immediately past the open doors. The creature tried to ready itself for Gharack's attack and the other xenos hissed at him, but they quickly abandoned their weak sibling to its fate.

Gharack was focused on the target…

So focused he didn't notice the human standing to his right.

Though he was cloaked, the wet slithering xenos were not… and the human stood against the wall in frightened and frozen surprise at the monsters which had so rapidly breezed past him.

As the lame xeno slashed and parried Gharack's wrist blades, he was able to easily take hold of the alien's tail.

In an almost routine motion Gharack severed the tail about midway up its length.

The xeno thrashed around and tried to flick its flowing acidic blood towards Gharack but he skillfully dodged the droplets.

With the tail's sharp blade in his left hand and his right wrist blades at the ready he lunged with both weapons towards the xeno.

Avoiding the low doorframe he landed on top of the immature and weak xeno.

In its defence the alien tried slashing at Gharack's chest, but its claws harmlessly scratched his light armour.

Gharack's attack however deeply embedded into the alien's thorax and its good leg.

It hissed and roared at the strikes and tried to slash at Gharack's face.

Leaving the tail lodged into the alien's good leg Gharack pulled his blades out of its thorax and roll-dodged to the right.

Avoiding the aliens' uncoordinated and frenzied slashes Gharack landed past the human, and finally registered the non-combatant's presence.

'Shit!' he remarked.

The xeno rose and tried to reposition itself into an aggressive stance.

Removing its tail-tip from the wound in its leg the xeno hissed and screamed at Gharack.

Gharack responded with a low growl and guttural roar.

The human finally broke their silence and began screaming as loud as their lungs were able.

"Fuck this!" the human male yelled.

Making a mad dash in between the two extraterrestrials the human luckily avoided the xeno's reactional slash as he closely passed the glistening xenomorph monster.

Gharack saw the opening and as soon as the human was clear the massive Yautja pushed off the ground with both legs and leveled his right wrist like a battering ram.

Striking the xeno just below its collar 'bones' Gharack embedded his blades deeply into the creature's centre of mass, and the direct hit elicited loud howls of pain from the creature as it hissed and whipped it's limbs for balance.

The force of the strike and Gharack's great weight forced the xeno backwards, and without its tail the weak creature fell to the floor.

It writhed around and slashed outwards madly at Gharack.

But the seasoned veteran Yautja kept his cool and easily dodged the futile and uncoordinated strikes.

Moving around on top of the creature he brought his blades out of the alien's chest and then back down again, severing it's right arm right at the joint.

Then he brought it down again severing the other arm.

'Time to finish this!'

As the xeno writhed and hissed under him he took hold of its neck and held its long head still, avoiding it's smaller inner mouth Gharack aimed his blades and drove them right into the middle of the xeno's oblong skull.

It wriggled and thrashed a little more, but the lame creature was finally put down.

Gharack pulled his blades out and let go of the neck.

Stepping up and back from the creature he flicked the acidic blood off his blades and onto the floor.

'With any luck the metal's not been completely eaten through…' he hoped.

Now finished with the creature in front of him he began to hear it…

Human's yelling, and the general sounds of panic…

"Oh shit…"

He looked down the hall that the other two xenos had gone and immediately he set on after them.

His weight made his feet loudly stomp down the hallway and when he came to the end he saw that it connected to a large open room.

A great staircase dominated the centre of the back wall and there were humans running up them.

In the middle of the floor ahead were a few grievously injured humans and past them a xeno had pounced on another victim.

Gharack roared loudly and drew the xeno's attention. It looked up from its prey and hissed at Gharack.

Climbing off the human the alien began to crawl away and towards the wall.

Gharack could see the claw marks of the last xeno leading towards the balcony which surrounded and overlooked the whole room.

"Oh no you don't!" he rumbled.

Sprinting after the xeno he jumped and collided with the wall, his arms outstretched to grab hold of its tail.

His right hand narrowly missed, but his left hand wrapped around the tip of the xeno's tail with ease.

Smacking the wall kind of winded Gharack and he began to breathe shallowly to try and cope.

The xeno hissed and began to drag down the wall; digging its claws into the drywall and tiles it destroyed the elegant paint and design of the rich display, and eventually it came loose, pulled down to the ground by Gharack's weight.

When he could Gharack took hold of the tail with his right hand as well and proceeded to lift the xeno off the ground.

Moving from the wall Gharack tried to use his strength and hit the creature against the wall it was trying to escape up, but the xeno instead wriggled closer to Gharack and tried kicking at him.

Forced to let go or have his abdomen slashed open Gharack released his grip and was forced backwards from the xeno.

It hissed and immediately tried climbing the wall again.

Gharack reached with his right hand while taking hold of a throwing blade with his left.

"Stay…" he took hold of the tail again.

"Down…" he pulled the tail towards him, the segmented parts of the tail in his grip cracked and broke under his thick fingers.

"Here!"

With the throwing blade in his left hand he drove it through the xeno's tail just past the portion he was holding and into the wall.

The xeno hissed and turned to roar at him but he then let go and activated his plasma caster.

"Roar at this you squirming bug!"

The caster deployed from its housing on Gharack's shoulder and took aim at the xeno's head.

The acid blood ate through the thin throwing blade quickly, and as its tail came free of the metal driven through it, the xeno turned to make its way back up the wall.

With a single bolt Gharack seared the back of the alien's head open and it fell from the wall like an electrocuted spider.

Gharack had no time to gloat…

The third was up on the balcony… and all he could hear around him was the human screams.

'Gods damn it…'

…

After making his way to Naomi's, as well as her parent's rooms, Yue had arrived at the conclusion that the early risers must have gone to breakfast.

Jumping into the elevator he descended to the lobby floor with a degree of urgency.

'Fuck… come on… it's not going to be that bad… is it?' he asked himself.

Running his fingers through his hair he scratched his scalp and groaned.

When the doors finally opened Yue was greeted with a horrible series of sounds.

He heard screaming, running, loud yells, and the commotion of people going in all directions, some immediately rushed into the elevator as soon as it opened and he darted to the side immediately leaving before he could have been crowded and forced back into the metal box.

'What the fuck!?' he exclaimed, "There is something going on!" he grumbled in surprise.

His head darted around as he tried to search the people running past him.

'Naomi?' he thought, 'fuck where is she!'

He rubbed his chin and began walking along the wall of the elevator hall, 'think you idiot, she's not going to be alone! She'll be with her parents!'

"Okay…" he whispered under his breath. 'Let's move!'

The elevator hall was not on the ground floor of the lobby.

It was actually on the floor of the balcony overlooking the lobby.

As Yue made his way to the entrance of the elevator hall he watched several more people run past him towards the elevators.

"You know you're supposed to use the stairs in an emergency!" he called.

Though his suggestion fell upon deaf ears and whenever an elevator opened people would pour in.

Yue shook his head, 'idiots…'

As Yue rounded the corner he finally saw one of the things that caused the panic…

The third xeno had made it up the wall and over the balcony.

It was currently pounced overtop of a woman and she writhed and screamed underneath the hideous and terrifying creature.

Yue's eyes shot wide open as the creature hissed and roared.

"wha-what the fuck i-is that!" he exclaimed.

The creature brought it's clawed hand above the woman and was about to strike.

'I-I can't watch this!' Yue's stomach turned and he looked to the side as the creature's blades landed. It elicited a loud shriek of pain from the woman and she screamed.

"Help m-me!" she looked at Yue and screamed even louder.

Yue shook and he didn't know what to do…

The alien flicked its tail and was about to impale it through the woman when Yue looked away in horror again.

Beside him were a fire alarm and a bright red fire extinguisher.

He looked back at the monster and then back to the fire extinguisher.

Without thinking his body moved on its own. Grabbing hold of the red metal canister he pulled it from its housing on the wall and he held it up with both hands.

He roared and yelled as he sprinted at the monster, he hoped to distract it from killing the woman long enough to attack it.

The xeno did look up from it's prey and it hissed at Yue.

Whipping it's tail sideways at the man it cut through his shirt and left a deep slash along his chest.

Yue stumbled to the side and missed his target.

The xeno stepped off of the woman, cutting her face with the claws of its' back feet as it did so.

It was now interested in Yue… very interested.

Though he stumbled and was cut Yue wasn't out of commission yet.

He was terrified and his whole body shook but he couldn't run now…

Yue readjusted the grip on the fire extinguisher and he cringed at the pain searing across his chest.

"What the fuck… the fuck… are you…" he panted.

The alien hissed and chomped its inner mouth out at Yue in a display as it lowered to the ground.

Its new position was like… Well it kind of looked like a cat?

Yue's eyes widened as the creature seemed to move in slow motion, 'It's going to pounce you fucking retard!'

It's back and front limbs pushed off the ground and it began hissing and roaring at him, it's open mouth frothing with thick saliva. It flew at him quickly and stretched its claws out to attack him, but somehow through just plain luck its sharp dagger like claws pierced the fire extinguisher first.

The metal container exploded sending Yue backwards and to the floor, the xeno up into the ceiling, and the foam matter within the container everywhere.

The top of the container bent and flew out of his hands hitting him in the chest, breaking several ribs.

The bottom half of the container flew past the xenomorph and into the lobby below, smashing through the glass railing of the balcony behind.

Yue clutched his chest and rolled in pain as he tried to yell.

The xenomorph recovered from hitting the ceiling but was now covered in the white-beige creamy chemicals from the extinguisher.

It was seemingly unamused with the device and was about to pounce on and rip Yue apart when there was a loud roar behind the xeno at the edge of the balcony.

…

Gharack climbed up the wall below the balcony with ease.

Though just as he reached the top a chunk of metal flew just above his head showering him in glass, He grumbled and half-roared in surprise.

The metal clanged off the opposite wall and fell to the lobby floor below.

'I think it's up here…' he thought to himself.

Once Gharack clambered to the next floor he saw quite a scene.

A female human lay on the ground injured and terrified of the xenomorph and a male sat against the wall ahead.

In between the two humans the xeno crouched and prepared itself to pounce on the male… though the creature had been covered in a white, foam like, material.

Gharack roared loudly to get the xeno's attention.

The creature whipped around and seemed to stare directly at Gharack.

Brandishing his wrist blades the large Yautja lowered his legs and bent into a brawler's stance.

He growled and rumbled loudly and the xeno hissed and shrieked in response.

'Let's dance you fucker…' Gharack thought, "I hope you put up a better performance than your siblings!"

Though it didn't understand him, the xeno hissed and chomped its jaws loudly at Gharack.

Displaying its impressive teeth it was showing off its fit fighting form.

Gharack shook his shoulders and growled loudly.

"Come on!"


	6. Chapter 6

Survive – Part six

The xeno leapt at Gharack and he readied himself to catch the creature.

Using its momentum against it Gharack helped throw the alien past him and over the glass balcony into the lobby below.

As it flew the creature hissed and screamed at the Yautja.

Its tail left a long cut along both Gharack's forearms, the male Yautja growled in pain but didn't allow the cut to deter his throw.

The xeno rolled in the air as it tried to brace and land on the floor below but Gharack wasn't going to let up now…

He went on the offensive, and as soon as the creature began its flight Gharack turned and jumped down after it.

As his feet impacted the marble floor of the lobby the stone cracked and fractured under Gharack's weight. The impact also sent a shock and rippled through his active camouflage and the cloak fizzed and he became visible for a few moments.

The alien had rolled as it hit the floor and when Gharack landed it was already upright again, its limbs spread out evenly as it laid low to the ground.

Hissing the creature lunged forwards at Gharack's legs and the bulky Yautja hopped backwards to avoid the strike.

Parrying he began to move his right wrist in slashes aimed at the alien's bulbous head.

Hissing and rapidly moving from side to side the xeno dodged the attacks; though Gharack wasn't really trying to land his blows… it was simply part of his stratagem.

He was figuring the beast out… learning its personality shall we say.

Though Gharack knew the mission was to clean up he couldn't help but indulge his egotistical desire for a good fight…

He rumbled with a growl and he could feel the familiar pounding of his heart in his chest.

'This is it…' he thought, 'this is for what I live!'

He admitted it wasn't for cleaning up messes; it wasn't for being stressed out about possible exile… It was for the thrill of the fight; the thrill of facing down a great beast, with high stakes to consider, and while in the fight to be alone and dependent on his own skills and abilities.

Roaring in response to the xeno's hiss he began a new flurry of attacks.

The xeno rolled and flipped backwards onto its hind legs.

Gharack smirked; so far the xeno had displayed a brilliant range of ability.

As the xeno reared it moved its hands forwards, knocking Gharack's blades off target and forcing him to readjust his left hand's punch.

While the wrist blades missed the xeno, his hardened anvil of a fist collided with the creature's side.

It hissed and shrieked.

Reacting to his blow the xeno lunged with the intent to grapple Gharack.

Before he could adequately respond he ended up awkwardly trying to push the creature off as it jumped forwards in a macabre hug.

As soon as it was in range the xeno began shooting its inner mouth towards Gharack's mask.

Bucking and darting his head from side to side Gharack tried to steady himself while dodging the razor sharp teeth.

The added weight of the xeno hanging off his front and the fact it was still thrashing and moving wildly made it all the more difficult to maintain his stance.

The xeno was smart…

It wrapped one of its hands around Gharack's and kept his right, bladed, arm 'pinned' struggling awkwardly in the air.

Gharack's left hand held the xeno's aloft and the two for a few seconds struggled with each other's strength.

'The tail and the inner mouth!' Gharack thought, 'I can't keep this up much longer!'

With a deep groan and a rumbling roar Gharack closed his left hand as tightly as possible while pushing himself forwards. Picking up speed he began a sprint towards the wall, he hoped, before the xeno impaled him with it's tail.

The xeno's right wrist began to audibly strain under Gharack's grip and in response to the crushing sensation it howled and hissed hideously.

…

Yue listened with fear to the roaring and the loud fighting of the monster and the invisible creature in the lobby below.

Clutching his chest he tried to stand.

The woman he had semi-saved coughed and sputtered quietly where she lay. Yue hoped he had helped in some way, but now with a few ribs broken and a long cut across his abdomen he was far too concerned with himself.

He tried to make it to his feet and he pressed his free hand against the wall.

Straining his muscles and moaning with pain he finally made it to a standing position.

He leaned his shoulder against the wall and groaned as the noise of the monster fight continued below.

From his pocket the familiar marimba ringtone of his phone sang out.

Through his pain he groaned a laugh.

With his left arm still clutching his stomach he slowly moved his right into his pocket to present the phone.

It was Naomi…

Sliding the screen unlocked he answered the call.

Bringing the device to his ear he nodded and coughed gruffly to clear his voice.

"Th-this is Yue…"

At the horrible wretched sounding voice Naomi shuddered and immediately responded; "Y-Yue? My god! Are you okay?"

Her voice was out of breath and very fearful.

"Not really…" he answered, coughing at the strain on his lungs.

"Oh my god… where are you? We're coming out of the restaurant, we're going to the lobby, are you in your room? Do you know what's going on? There's just been loud commotion and, and…" she paused as she tried to take a breath.

In the background he could hear the hurried and concerned voices of Naomi's parents.

She responded to them in their dialect and Yue's eyes fluttered as he tried to remain standing against the wall.

"There's just been screaming and… confusion! We don't know what's going on but everyone is running and acting crazy!"

Yue nodded, as he tried to form words.

"D-don't come through the lobby."

The phone crackled and he could hear the roar of the monsters through the phone as well as from the lobby.

"What?" Naomi asked.

The phone crackled and Yue repeated himself a little louder, "Don't come through the lobby!"

Naomi's voice became quiet and the phone closer to her mouth, "Yue… there's… I-I knew I saw something outside! There's"

The phone line went dead and Yue's eyes shot open.

He had brushed the end call button with his cheek as he tried to keep it against his face.

"F-fuck…" he groaned.

Staring at the default home screen of his phone he was almost insulted by the image staring back at him behind his few apps;

It was a photo of him in a speedo with two topless women wearing bikini bottoms and showing off each of their tan-lines.

He moaned in pain and his legs buckled under him. Pressing his shoulder tightly against the wall he slowed and controlled his descent, but Yue still involuntarily slid down the wall until he was sitting again.

…

Naomi looked at her phone and shook the device in frustration.

"Where's Yue?" her mother asked.

Her father followed up, "Is he still in the hotel?"

Turning to her husband Naomi's mother's face dropped, "Do you think we'll be evacuated?"

He shook his head and Naomi tried to think.

"He's still in the hotel… but I could barely hear him! There was so much noise!"

Naomi's father nodded pensively.

"We need to get to our rooms… I… I don't have my wallet, we don't have our clothes, and if this really is an emergency we'd need cash, anything to maybe trade."

Naomi nodded as her father thought aloud.

He moved in front of the two women and they began walking from the busy entrance of the restaurant towards the main hallway which led to the lobby.

"We get to our rooms, we see if we can call Yue again… Thankfully we only really have to worry about ourselves!"

Naomi and her mother nodded.

"Thank god none of the cousins have arrived yet!" The older Huang woman spoke.

The male Huang nodded as he led his wife and daughter by their hands.

"Likely they were stopped before they even reached the hotel!"

Naomi shook her head, "No, no. Father, Mother."

She tried to get her parents' attention but they kept moving forwards towards the lobby, despite the people rushing around them and the noises all over.

"Please hang on! I saw something!"

Her voice climbed in pitch and she ended up defiantly yelling at her father.

Both her parents stared at her in surprise.

"Please, I'm sorry, but… I saw something out the window after the explosions."

Her father and mother looked at each other.

For once in her life it seemed they were actually paying complete attention to her.

"T-there was a… thing… I don't know what it was but..."

She shook her head nervously, "I swear I saw it."

Then over the noise of the people they heard the roaring and the hissing of two large animals.

A chill went up Naomi's spine.

'What on earth was that?'

Her father narrowed his eyes down the hall and tried to see past the people at the end.

They were blocking his view of the lobby but after another loud roar and some banging the crowd immediately turned and began sprinting down the hall back towards the family in a panic.

Naomi's father turned and the three of them began to run back down the hall towards the restaurant.

"Stay together!" He cried.

He'd seen runs before… Human stampedes and such crises… They were ugly.

And once the crowd began running everyone seemingly lost their humanity. They lost their ability to think, and behaved exactly like what they were in that moment: scared animals without reason.

He held his hands tightly; clutching both his daughter's and his wife's as hard as he dared.

"We've got to stay together!" he repeated.

"Come on girls!"

With a sense of urgency and command she hadn't seen in her father for many years the elder Huang led his family down the hall and back into the restaurant.

The crowd behind them had enveloped them and the people were pushing against one another as the mass of people sprinted as fast as they could away from the danger, still roaring loudly, down the hall.

The noise of the crowd was mostly incoherent screaming, sobbing, and breathing, but over this general noise Naomi heard someone say; "It's a monster!"

Another continued to chant, "We're going to die!"

And yet another cried out, "There's two!"

Though she was terrified Naomi couldn't help but feel consumed with curiosity. And as they ran she continued to look back over her shoulder.

Her mother was becoming more and more flustered and father Huang was continuing to talk to her. His voice was raised but he was doing everything he could to try and keep her calm.

Naomi wasn't listening.

She'd never seen panic like what was currently all around her.

She'd only ever been close to an accident at her school campus once. And though it was a while ago she was beginning to recollect that the feeling she had then was similar.

Everyone else was losing their heads, becoming unglued, and giving into hysteria.

But Naomi?

She kept calm, she was cool, and she was oddly collected.

The girl who was being, and had been, pushed around her whole life, was somehow able to keep herself centred and calm during the panic which was consuming everyone else in the hallway.

Though her father's hand was holding hers tightly a thought crossed her mind;

'I'd be just as fine were he not holding me…'

And the thought made her want to stop.

She wanted to see what the _monsters_ were.

Naomi knew she had seen something earlier, and she had to confirm what it was.

As the crowd became more frenzied as they narrowed through the entrance to the restaurant she looked at how intently her father and mother were looking at each other, and how focused they were in their conversation.

And though the crowd was loud, and the yelling was hard to hear over she found her voice.

The strange coolness and calm she'd discovered in her chest seemed to take over her.

'I've got to find Yue…' she thought, 'I heard him.'

She darted over her shoulder again and could see a momentary lapse in the spacing of the crowd.

Naomi looked back towards her parents; her mother was beginning to really lose it, and was nearly screaming at her father in an upset and passionate tone.

His grip loosened.

And Naomi moved her hand out of his.

"I've got to find Yue!"

"Wait Naomi! We can find another way!"

But she didn't stop.

She slipped in-between the space the crowd had along the right side.

" _I've got to find Yue!"_ she repeated.

She couldn't hear her parents over the noise of the crowd, and now she had made her way into the mass of people.

And she was fighting against the flow of the traffic.

Against the people rushing at her she dodged and moved to either side, until she pressed herself up against the right wall. Stretching herself flat against it she kept moving as best as she could.

Her heart was beating so hard she could feel it in her throat.

' _What the hell are you doing?'_ her mind screamed.

But she didn't stop to think, she just continued to act. As she got farther down the hall she finally seemed to have a response to her own question:

' _I… I don't know!'_

She laughed under her breath and continued moving, her legs and arms shaking from the adrenaline of the situation and the anxiety of having just literally walked away from her parents.

'I have… I have no idea what I'm doing!'

She shook her head as she remained against the wall, slowly inching her way closer to the lobby.

The crowd was beginning to thin, and soon she was a few feet away from the entrance and there were no more people.

Everyone having ran into the shelter of the restaurant.

'Are you even trying to get to Yue? Or are you just trying to get away from it all?'

She stopped mid step.

Her own thoughts knew her better than she did…

'Is that really what I'm doing?'

Behind her at the end of the hall she could hear her father's exacerbated and faint voice.

He was calling her name. But she almost refused to acknowledge it and shook her head.

'No… I've got to keep going… I _have to see it…_ '

She nodded at herself.

At the strange resolve which had suddenly filled her.

'No… father, mother… I've got to do something crazy… even if it's just for me, and even if it's just this once…'

She felt her lips part and a strange light laugh escape.

Her eyes fluttered and she squinted to be able to see as a wave hit her mind.

'Keep going… just for once in your life; be free! Do something completely of your own accord!'

She nodded and shut her eyes before opening them widely, 'Come on…'

She took several quick steps forwards and she finally crossed the threshold into the lobby.

But Naomi couldn't have prepared herself for what she was about to see. And just how terrifyingly close the monsters would come

…

Author's note:

I apologise for the shortness of the chapter, but I wanted to get something out this weekend and make sure that you readers know I'm still plugging away at this.

As always any suggestions or catches of my errors are always welcome.

Thank you for your patience and your loyalty.

Lots of love,

VV


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